Before I met Xu Yaping in person, I had already heard of him from one of my colleagues, who reported on his stories before and described him as a straightforward guy with a strong sense of justice. Yes, he really is.

We met in his office, a small building sitting beside a school and covered with ivy. Wearing a red outdoor jacket, he looks ready to go into the wild at anytime. It was in the city of Yueyang, in central China's Hunan Province, and he talked to me enthusiastically with a local accent, but it was ok, I understood him well. 

I felt a little surprised when he suddenly showed me the scar on his belly. It was left when he had surgery after he fell and ruptured his bowel during a daily patrol. At that moment I was convinced that this man has done so much to protect the animal he loves--the Jiangtun, a finless porpoise in the Yangtze River.

It's my first time to really get to know this lovely creature. When I saw close shots of them, a big smile always on their face, I fell for them too. And I felt so sad when I heard there are only less than 1000 of them in the Yangtze River and they are going to die out in ten years. And I was shocked when Xu told me local people used to kill and eat them. How did they have the heart to do that?

Many people told me now Jiangtun can rarely be seen in the river. It made me feel so lucky when the next day me and my cameraman followed Xu and his team on a daily patrol along the eastern part of the Dongting Lake. I didn't expect to see so many Jiangtun swimming and leaping in the river. 

Xu gave me some good news, saying that ecological conditions have improved a lot more than before. And as guards of the river dolphins, they are not as busy as before, when they had frequent clashes with illegal fisherman.

He also said the number of river dolphins, in the eastern part of Dongting Lake, has increased from 80 in 2012 to around 110 this year. But that's still a small number. 

However, on the third day, a happy occasion turned out to be quite sad. We were informed that some fishermen had found a live Jiangtun stranded on the riverbed. Xu said last time they rescued a Jiangtun was five years ago. We rode on a motorboat for about 40 minutes. Despite the coldness on the lake, we were overwhelmed by excitement. 

The stranded dolphin had already been transported to a small pool on a wooden boat when we saw it. It was able to move in the pool. Xu said it was about 2 years old and had a slight injuring on its tail. They took it from the pool and wrapped it in a cotton quilt and put it onto our motorboat.

They said some high-level officials wanted it to be released into an enclosed pool in a small station on the lake so that experts could check it later. Some experts from the Hydrobiology Institute under China Academy of Sciences in the city of Wuhan in neighboring Hubei Province arrived a few hours later.

On our way to the station, workers from the local fishing authorities, also members of Xu's Jiangtun Protection Association, were pouring water onto the body of the dolphin, a measure they said to keep it wet and physically safe. But about ten minutes later, I touched the dolphin and something felt wrong. I asked them whether it was still alive. Some remained silent and some said it should be alive. I had a bad feeling about their ambiguity.

When we finally got to the pool they put the dolphin, which already looked stiff, into the pool. It didn't move at all. It was dead. Everybody felt bad. A happy rescue ended up in vain. Xu felt worse and wondered what caused the death of the dolphin. He said their procedure was right and they've saved a couple of dolphins before in this way. Everybody left the scene to allow the experts to check the body.

They said this has never happened before and didn't tell me more about it. However, I do appreciate what they have been doing to protect Jiangtun. They have even signed a accidental death waiver for their work. For so many nights, they risking their own life to fight with greedy fishermen who carry out lethal electro-fishing. 

Xu said he aims to break the curse of extinction for these beautiful animals. He takes it as a bet and he wants to win it within ten years. I think he's a lucky man because he has found a meaningful thing to do for the rest of his life. 

Sincerely, I cross my fingers for Xu and his team as well as the river dolphins.

(Cover: Xu Yaping was showing me where to see river dolphins on the eastern part of the Dongting Lake. /CGTN Photo‍)