I Can Turn into a Fish

After returning from sea, Chu Xian could relax again.

Every day he either headed over to the fish farm to leisurely watch the large yellow croakers and white flower fish grow, or he would head out to sea with Old Huang and the others to retrieve more aquarium material. Soon, he had over five thousand completed tanks.

Right by the fish farm, a large group of construction workers were starting construction.

Chu Xian had bought up all the small fish farms around Fengtai lake and merged them into a dorm and factory for making aquariums.

Since the matter was not as complicated as some skyscraper, the estimated projection was a ready build within a month.

As time passed, the film Chu Xian and the others starred in slowly grew famous on the internet.

Duan Ke was obviously very good at advertising, and started things off with bumping up and resurfacing the previously posted shark hunting video, spending money to boost its visibility on Weibo and other social media platforms.

The video began trending in just a couple of days.

“Fuck me! Is this real? Killing sharks out at sea? What is this, some kind of movie?”

When the video was posted, no one thought it was real, and thought that the scene must have been shot for a movie.

How could anyone dare dive into the water to fight sharks? These were not some dolphins, but sharks! If you said that humans had dove into the water to fight some other sea creature it might be somewhat believable, but this was a shark, and the incredibly ferocious great white at that.

“Is this some big budget American film? Why does it look cooler than that big white shark movie?”

“Are you blind, can’t you see that everyone in the video is asian? Is this a big budget Chinese film? It feels like the special effects are very good?”

“What a boss, brawling with a shark. Although the story seems kind of unbelievable, but it’s still very cool.”

The video was filmed from a phone, and the grainy definition obscured a lot of the detail. When the video was posted, everyone immediately assumed that it was made for a film.

But very quickly, to everyone’s astonishment, a group of people stood up and claimed that the video was real, and that it was impossible to create this kind of recording with special effects.

Once the news emerged, everyone was struck speechless, and they could not believe that such a thing was possible.

“If there really are people who dare fight sharks barefisted, i will eat my keyboard on a live stream. Great White Sharks are apex predators, and on an equal playing field, not even lions and tigers can compete. How could it be possible for men to beat these sharks, do you think they are supermen?”

“I agree. If this is real, I will eat my keyboard beside you. Although they used some sort of weapon to injure the shark, even a starved shark is still bigger than a human, and blood in the water will only make it more ferocious. Sharks that weigh two to three tons are impossible to hunt without a heavy weapon.”

“I don’t believe it, they’re all fools. Even if they severely injured a shark, fighting it in the water is still impossible.”

The video went viral, and countless people followed the news, but no one believed that this video was real.

Duan Ke read the comments and laughed. Everything was as he had planned, and he only needed to release these videos and guide the flow of conversation a little, and then he would not need to do a thing. The curious would keep seeking the truth.

And just as he expected, although many people refused to believe that the video was real, some were still convinced.

Many of these people worked in the film industry, and knew a little bit about special effects.

“Right now, special effects cannot create such a realistic recording, some portions of this video are not altered.”

“Really, who among you has seen such realistic effects? Do you really think that our technology has reached such a stage today?”

In this slew of comments, a famous director reposted the video and commented as well. “With the standards of our current technology, our special effects cannot achieve such a high standard of realism. This video should be authentic, and have you all missed to real focus? This group of people dived into the water and braved the shark because they wanted to save the little child in the water?”

When the director spoke out, many others immediately voiced their agreement, and he was especially supported by his friends in the industry.

“That’s right. Our current special effects cannot create such a realistic fabrications. And if you look carefully, this is clearly a real shark, not one created by special effects.”

“I’m stunned. These people are incredible! They must be people who make their living on the sea, and in order to save a child they even dive into the waters to face a shark! Amazing.”

When the professionals spoke out, everyone was stunned again.

“F*** me, how monstrous. They really fought a shark?”

“Respect!”

“All I want to know is where those brothers are going to stream there keyboard eating. I already said before that this was too realistic to be fake.”

“Don’t lie, I clearly remember that you were one of those that said they would stream themselves eating their keyboard.”

“It’s all a publicity stunt. This is clearly an advertisement for a film. I want to ask this director if this video is part of a film he made?”

Although many more people began to believe, they were still outnumbered by those who could not accept such a ridiculous truth.

But as time passed and as more credible sources supported the truth, more and more people began to believe.

Among these sources were verified social media personalities and famous entrepreneurs, and if you did some research you would quickly discover that all these people were eye-witnesses to the event, and the truth was nobody had been more stunned than they to witness such a scene.

“This video is authentic. We were resting on the cruise ship, and some children had gone out on a small boat to explore the waters. Suddenly, a great white shark appeared, and one of the naughty children grabbed onto the shark’s fin. Immediately the shark went crazy, and if it weren’t for the fishing ship that happened by at just the right moment, then a tragedy might have taken place. These people shot at the shark and a small group of four or five people dived into the water to control the shark and save the children.”

A famous entrepreneur from Wu Shan posted on his Weibo.

“This really happened. At the time I also took a video and posted it a while ago, but nobody paid any attention. I’m going to repost it now, to pay respect to these brothers.” An assistant manager from a nationally owned company posted as well.

Many wealthy figures posted their accounts, and the authenticity of the video was verified again and again. Many of those who had taken films themselves posted their recordings, and although many of them were blurred and indistinct, it was clear that they were not made with special effects.

In the blink of an eye, the popularity of the video surged again, and struck people speechless. The video was played again and again.

At this time, another video was posted and went viral.

Out on the vast seas, a fishing ship rammed full speed into another ship, and the loud crash rang out across the water.

And seemingly without pause, the ship repositioned and rammed into the other ships surrounding it.

Everyone who watched the video was stunned.

“What the f*** is going on? Is this a movie? It must be a movie, this can’t be real.”

The same thought popped into everyone’s mind, and even the professionals could not help but wonder. Wasn’t this kind of ramming and ship-to-ship combat clearly a naval battle?

Everyone already had the shark incident on their mind, and now there were battles at sea? When the people noticed the national flags flying on the ships, their certainty grew.

“This is a f****** fishing boat? With a high pressure gun? Ships ramming into each other, and people fighting sharks? Is the ocean really this terrifying?”

Many people had already been interested in the romance of the sea, and these videos were in some way a first glimpse at the lives out in the waters. After these two videos were uploaded, many people began talking passionately.

Very quickly, some sharp eyed viewers noticed a similarity between the two videos.

“Did you guys notice that this ship that rammed the other ships is the same one that fought the shark? F*** me, who are these people? The Triad? Pirates?”

The thought of an underground community controlling the waters sounded funny at first, but after watching these two videos nobody laughed. These people were more frightening than gangsters.

Daring to fight a shark?

Boldly ramming other ships?

Any small mistake would cost lives!

And these risky, dangerous actions were all taken by this singular ship.

Suddenly, news about this ship went viral, and whether it was on your social media feed, or on various message boards, or even on some news outlets on TV, the whole country was paying attention.

Some people claimed that these sailors must be Chinese soldiers, because only soldiers would be so daring.

Others called them brave warriors, fighting sharks to save children, fighting Japanese ships to show the strength of the nation. For the Chinese people, the ship was a symbol of bravery and strength, and many people supported it.

Of course there were still voices that argued and castigated, and since the ship clearly had lethal weapons, certain experts believed that these sailors must be part of a mafia, and that their possession of weaponry was illegal, and their slaughter of the great white shark crossed laws preserving endangered species.

Many people believed that these videos touched upon the dark side of seafaring, and that this ramming situation most likely involved smuggling, and the ship had somehow came in conflict with Japanese smugglers.

In the end, nobody agreed on one set explanation, and there were experts on every side with conflicting views.

Each group of expert could give many examples and offer many opinions.

But whether they thought well or ill of the circumstances, they all shared something in common, and over the next few days, everyone was talking about these two videos.

Duan Ke watched everything and smiled. He did not care if people were giving praise or insulting him — the first publicity step had been successful, and it was time for the next part of the plan.

The editing for the movie was finally finished during this time, and the promotional trailer polished and ready to ship.

The trailer contained many scenes from these two viral videos, all in high definition.

On the third day, Duan Ke posted a trailer on his Weibo account.

If he could not have been considered famous before, after the recent videos Duan Ke’s name had already spread throughout the internet, even if most of the comments about him were insulting.

But in the end, even if a lot of people were talking badly about him, and he had gathered a big group of haters, he had still captured their attention.

Over ten million people followed his Weibo.