Finless Porpoise

Winter 2011, Wuhan. In the Baiji Dolphin Museum, the last Baiji Dolphin, Qiqi, has become a specimen. Twenty-eight-year-old Tang Shangya stood in front of the glass cover and made a choice that shocked everyone: Resigned as chief reporter of China News Service, gave up Beijing, and went to Dongting. My mother spent her entire life failing to keep the Baiji dolphin. Master stayed on the river and wrote 300 records of the death of finless porpoises in four years. And she must use her pen as a blade and her body as a shield, Create a biography for the finless porpoise and keep vigil for life. Turbid lake water, illegal fishing, late-night threats, cold corpses... This road leads to a narrow escape from death. But she knows: Some creatures should not just live in specimens. Some protections require someone to devote their entire life to them. This ambition is for the finless porpoise. In this life, it is the Yangtze River.