Jiang Xiaoya didn’t tell her mother that relatives had come looking for her. She treated it as a little secret and hid it deep in her heart. She sensed that, ever since that day, her mother had become a little different.
The Swamp Monster began guarding her without leaving her side. Even if she merely crawled upstairs to play for a while, urgent heh-heh sounds would echo throughout the entire prison. It would search every corner until it confirmed she was still there; when Jiang Xiaoya crawled out to play, she would often come back to see the gigantic creature anxiously looking for her.
Jiang Xiaoya felt something strange in her heart. She had always been a child who was left behind, with very little sense of security—high in emotional needs, very clingy. She had never had the experience of being loved as a matter of course; and the Swamp Monster was a big monster that was very bad at expressing emotions. It was hard to communicate with, and you couldn’t even tell how much human emotion it had. Sometimes Jiang Xiaoya would also think: could it be that you’re just being too self-indulgent, Jiang Xiaoya?
But now, she realized that no matter what, she would not be abandoned.
She scooted over and rammed her head wildly against her mother’s massive body, nestling obediently beside the big monster, telling it: Mommy, Ya isn’t leaving.
The Swamp Monster refused to admit that it was guarding her, replying in a muffled voice: the weather is too bad; it doesn’t want to go out.
Still, it never left her home alone again. Jiang Xiaoya liked to climb around, so it would tuck Jiang Xiaoya under its arm or place her on its shoulder; no matter how noisy she was, no matter how annoying it found children, it never abandoned her.
Now, Jiang Xiaoya had grown many little millet-grain-like teeth. Her gums were itchy; she wanted to bite anything she saw, and the Swamp Monster became her teething tool.
The top predator of the swamp had extremely strong bodily instincts and conditioned reflexes. The first time it was bitten by a child’s teeth, it nearly slapped her to death, barely managing to restrain itself in the end. It stared at that reckless little cub, twisted its neck, and let out a vicious heh-heh sound: Let go!
Jiang Xiaoya was indeed intimidated and let go. But her gums were itchy; she looked left and right and couldn’t find anything clean to bite. Since she wasn’t allowed to bite its hand, the little beagle wriggled over and took a bite right into its face. After biting, feeling that she might have left a big bite mark on Mommy’s face, she began enthusiastically prprpr-ing.
Jiang Xiaoya told Mommy that this was a way of expressing affection. She liked Mommy, so she had to prprpr.
The Swamp Monster tilted its head. It thought for two seconds, then suddenly opened its big mouth and bit down on Jiang Xiaoya’s arm. The little beagle immediately let out miserable ao-ao-ao screams.
It hesitated for a moment, thinking it had bitten her, and released its grip.
But upon closer inspection, not even a tooth mark had been left on the child’s arm. Once freed, Jiang Xiaoya had perfect control; she immediately stopped howling and, as if nothing had happened, slipped off to play with little flowers somewhere else.
The Swamp Monster: “……”
The Swamp Monster brought Jiang Xiaoya teething biscuits, and also brought back some bone broth. But Jiang Xiaoya didn’t like gnawing on any of it. After wandering around for a bit, she came back to gnaw on it again.
Suppressing conditioned reflexes was very difficult. The Swamp Monster arched its back and glared viciously at Jiang Xiaoya.
The little beagle nonchalantly continued gnawing on its face, poking her head out in between: So, Mommy—are you going to bite me to death?
Jiang Xiaoya discovered that provoking Mommy and making her angry was a very happy thing. And she developed a very bad habit: if Mommy didn’t scold her today, she would feel empty and lost, as if something were missing.
───♡───
However, although she had rejected the better human world, Jiang Xiaoya hadn’t truly become a wild child. The Swamp Monster stuffed Jiang Xiaoya with lots of clothes and little dresses, as well as toys like magic cubes and little yellow ducks. It didn’t know what children needed; whatever it found, it shoved it all to her in one go.
Jiang Xiaoya found many accessories and hair clips among the clothes. She liked these shiny things. But her arms were short and she couldn’t comb her hair, so she ran excitedly to the Swamp Monster, wanting Mommy to comb her hair.
Facing the child’s eyes full of anticipation, the Swamp Monster of course refused. As the most powerful existence in this swamp, its hands were meant to tear out the throats of water ghosts and crush their skulls. The colossal creature lowered its head with a heh-heh warning to this little person, telling her not to push her luck.
Although it liked her a little, it was not an indulgent parent—it was the most brutal leader here.
To demonstrate its powerful and ferocious side, the Swamp Monster deliberately took Jiang Xiaoya along to hunt water ghosts.
Generally speaking, parents wouldn’t let children be exposed to bloody violence, but this Swamp Monster was not a very good parent. Jiang Xiaoya watched as the water ghosts’ heads shattered like watermelons, and even reinforced concrete buildings collapsed under the colossal creature’s hands. But more than being frightened, Jiang Xiaoya was confused—she didn’t know why Mommy had brought her to see this.
The Swamp Monster found a lot of fruit and snacks and stuffed them to her, threatening her fiercely.
It believed that every bit of Jiang Xiaoya’s flesh had been painstakingly fed by it.
All of it was its!
It cherished the fruits of its labor.
——It never again thought about throwing Jiang Xiaoya into the trash.
Jiang Xiaoya could eat meat now.
Jiang Xiaoya could say longer sentences now.
───♡───
Jiang Xiaoya fell into the muddy ground and wailed loudly.
As usual, the Swamp Monster grabbed her by the back of the collar and lifted her up, ferociously threatening her to stop crying. But this time, its threats completely failed; it growled at her for an entire afternoon and still couldn’t scare her quiet.
Jiang Xiaoya’s tears gushed out like a faucet. Her sorrow echoed across the entire swamp; even the water ghosts found it too noisy and silently sank back into the depths of the mud.
It wanted to throw Jiang Xiaoya away again!
But the child’s reddened eyes and drenched, pitiful appearance made it feel terribly uncomfortable.
The colossal creature stiffly crouched down, its long hair falling loose.
It hesitated for a long time, and finally—
Slowly leaned toward the cub, squeezing out an awkward “ho-ho” from its throat.
Baby.
It turned its head away; even its enormous shadow became uneasy, its body tensing along with it, as if ready to retreat back into a ferocious state at any moment.
Jiang Xiaoya quieted down. The child looked at Mommy in surprise. Although she couldn’t understand, she knew it was an unprecedented, gentle tone.
She stopped crying and happily ran over, hugging it and affectionately rubbing her cheek against it.
And so, from the heartbroken Jiang Xiaoya, the Swamp Monster learned that it had been her favorite dress.
That night, the Swamp Monster went to the lakeside.
It wanted to scrub that dress clean. On it were two monsters, one big and one small.
The Swamp Monster leaned in to take a look and thought it was especially ugly!
But its strength was too great—
Rip. The dress split cleanly into two halves.
It looked left and right, realized Jiang Xiaoya wasn’t there, and immediately, as if nothing had happened, hid the ruined dress away.
The next day, Jiang Xiaoya couldn’t find the dress and wailed loudly. The Swamp Monster pretended not to hear and looked off into the distance.
In the far distance, water lilies bloomed between the lake and the swamp.
Time passed so quickly; it turned out that it was already the end of midsummer.
───♡───
At last, Jiang Xiaoya could run!
She ah-ah-ed as she sprinted toward it, crossing the lake and the swamp, her hair blown into complete disarray by the wind, puffing out like a fluffy little dog.
