When Jiang Xiaoya was two years old, she had a dream.
It was winter. Tiandong Base was swallowed by the swamp. Monsters from the water swamp appeared amid heavy rain, emerging from thick fog and water vapor, walking through high-rise buildings. It had long hair, its body incomparably bloated, growing as tall as a twenty-story building. Amid the rising and falling screams, the water swamp monster was blasted by modern weapons into green clouds of blood, letting out terrifying hissing shrieks…
Tiandong Base fell as a result. This base was soon covered everywhere by swamp and lakes. In the dark world, the indescribable swamp devoured the entire city, and a pair of green vertical pupils watched the next city not far away without the slightest emotion.
Expansion… swamp…
“Heh… heh.”
Jiang Xiaoya woke up from the dream in a daze and saw her mother beside her.
The enormous body was covered with little mushrooms and small flowers, like a hill blooming with tiny blossoms.
The dream seemed like some kind of omen, but Jiang Xiaoya could not connect the ferocious mother in the dream with reality at all. She was only confused for a moment before quickly throwing the matter to the back of her mind, happily picking dandelions off the ground and sticking them onto her mother’s head.
Two years passed, and Tiandong Base still had not moved. This pure land at the end of the apocalypse still stood firm at the edge of the swamp. Because humanity had gained time to catch its breath, some ability users appeared within the human bases. Even more encouraging was that among the batch of children born after the acid rain, most were detected to possess mental entities. This meant that humanity’s future survival would become more hopeful.
However, at the same time, the water ghosts in the swamp were also growing stronger. Restless factors filled the air.
The swamp monster had also undergone some changes. Compared to when it had first picked up Jiang Xiaoya, its body looked a bit larger, and it had become even more ferocious and terrifying.
It began to hunt and prey on water ghosts more and more, strengthening its own power. It was the apex predator of this swamp. Perhaps because it was born within the swamp, the instinct to expand the swamp and grow was carved into its very nature.
It could feel the hunger of the swamp, its desire to swallow more and more things. This cruel and terrifying anomalous creature was coveting Tiandong Base, as if it could hear the swamp’s call: eat… eat it.
Just like in that dream, and just as Tiandong Base feared, once this monster grew to a certain extent, it would become a horrifying natural disaster, bringing devastating destruction.
But for now, everything was still very calm. Because ever since it started raising Jiang Xiaoya, the water swamp monster no longer had any time to be a monster!
When Jiang Xiaoya was one year old, she was still very cute. It liked holding Jiang Xiaoya while watching the rain, or lifting her onto its head, listening to her slur her words as she said she liked Mommy. In this prison, only the sound of rain and a child’s giggles echoed. The water swamp monster learned how to get along with Jiang Xiaoya, how to communicate.
But as time passed, the vigilance and instincts flowing in the swamp monster’s blood urged it to conquer and kill—this was a kind of survival instinct. It had actually appeared near Tiandong Base several times already, causing panic and disturbances. It sensed the fear humans felt toward it. But to such a ferocious and terrifying apex predator, patrolling its territory and establishing authority was only natural.
It wanted to expand the swamp, to stride mightily and viciously through the human world, flaunting its presence everywhere, running rampant amid human screams like the crabs Jiang Xiaoya raised.
However, every time it tried to take advantage of Jiang Xiaoya falling asleep to go to Tiandong Base and do something ferocious and terrifying, a small thing would always sneakily follow behind it, chasing after it: “Ma-ma-ma-ma—”
The water swamp monster had heard a word from the human world: baggage.
Jiang Xiaoya was its little piece of baggage.
After all, the water swamp monster was still a very young monster. It did not have the patience of an adult—moreover, it was not even human. Before raising Jiang Xiaoya, it had been irritable and easily enraged. In short, it was not something to mess with. That such an existence could raise Jiang Xiaoya to this age was already completely inconceivable.
This year, Jiang Xiaoya was two years old. Children at this age were like they had been wound up, bouncing all over the place.
And while other children could burn off their excess energy with peers their own age, there were no suitable playmates in the swamp. Aside from following behind Mommy all day long with little pitter-pattering steps, Jiang Xiaoya was tearing roofs off houses.
On the water swamp monster’s head, aside from mushrooms growing out, there were all kinds of messy hair clips, all pulled into chaos by Jiang Xiaoya. It felt that it had degenerated into Jiang Xiaoya’s toy, and found it unbearable.
The water swamp monster had no choice but to think of a way to use up Jiang Xiaoya’s overly abundant energy. Thus, it decided to take Jiang Xiaoya along to hunt water ghosts.
When Jiang Xiaoya was little, she had gone to kill a water ghost once, but she no longer had any memory of it. Early the next morning, she followed the water swamp monster to the vicinity of an abandoned human city, where Mommy lifted her up and tossed her straight into a pile of water ghosts.
She was very ill at ease, glancing left and right for a while. When her gaze met the pair of green vertical pupils of the water swamp monster squatting above her, she slowly calmed down.
Jiang Xiaoya felt that since Mommy dared to bring her here, it must mean that Mommy thought she was very capable.
The water swamp monster began teaching Jiang Xiaoya combat techniques—for example, how to lie in ambush, how to twist off a water ghost’s head, and how to use one’s body to evade.
Jiang Xiaoya listened very attentively.
Water swamp monster: do this and that, then take the opponent’s head.
Jiang Xiaoya: do this and that, then take away the opponent’s chicken chicken!
Do you understand?
Mm-hm!
As soon as the water swamp monster loosened its grip and let Jiang Xiaoya go, she charged toward the water ghosts like a bull.
In Jiang Xiaoya’s eyes, she was not running around blindly. She charged forward like this and that, woof woof, and the enemies fell like chopping melons and slicing vegetables!
The water swamp monster squatted in the corner, watching helplessly as Jiang Xiaoya zipped back and forth like a little motor. In order to protect Jiang Xiaoya, the water swamp monster followed behind her butt to clean up the mess. In the past, killing water ghosts had been as easy as cutting cabbage, a kind of enjoyment; now it had turned into a form of torture.
The training effect was very good.
Jiang Xiaoya went from a weak little beagle into a strong little beagle with immense strength!
She now had excellent dodging skills, able to dart up to Mommy’s head when Mommy tried to grab her; she had extremely fast reaction speed, able to ambush Mommy in the blink of an eye;
She fell in love with hunting, charging ahead of Mommy every time and slaughtering gleefully.
Now, aside from killing water ghosts and scavenging supplies from abandoned cities, the water swamp monster also had to keep hold of Jiang Xiaoya, because the moment it let go, she would woof woof and fly out to attack water ghosts.
Whether Jiang Xiaoya’s energy had been used up was unclear. Instead, the little beagle’s confidence began to grow geometrically, because she discovered that if you averaged her combat power with Mommy’s, it was equivalent to killing ten water ghosts in one breath.
In the past, Jiang Xiaoya had been very timid. She only dared to hide beneath the water swamp monster’s hair, tightly gripping Mommy’s hair. But now, Jiang Xiaoya fell in love with provoking cats and teasing dogs. There were no cats or dogs in the swamp, so she went to provoke crocodiles and ducks, getting chased everywhere.
Then she would hide behind Mommy and let out werwer sounds.
When taking Jiang Xiaoya out to scavenge supplies for her, the water swamp monster often squatted atop the ruins and thought: maybe I should just leave her here. But Jiang Xiaoya still had the bow on her head that it had braided all night long. Not long ago, Jiang Xiaoya had also developed allergies, and it had taken her to several hospitals before she was cured… the sunk costs accumulated little by little like this.
Every little thing was a snowflake, eventually piling up heavily into a responsibility that could not be shaken off.
While scavenging supplies, the water swamp monster saw a portable television at a human base. The kind with an antenna and a generator. It squatted in front of it and watched carefully for a while:
Couldn’t understand it. Colorful nonsense!
But thinking of Jiang Xiaoya, it still brought it home.
Jiang Xiaoya especially liked that television. At the moment she discovered that Jiang Xiaoya had cartoons to watch and no longer clung to it, the water swamp monster felt an enormous sense of redemption.
It was like the feeling of fighting a thousand water ghosts in the swamp and escaping death.
However, after television enriched her entertainment life, Jiang Xiaoya’s hobbies also became more varied—she fell in love with playing house.
Jiang Xiaoya wanted to be a brave little puppy knight and defeat the evil dragon!
She told Mommy the rules of the game. The water swamp monster thought it was supposed to play the evil dragon for Jiang Xiaoya. Reluctantly and against its will, it lowered its head, preparing to let out a terrifying hiss.
But Jiang Xiaoya looked at it strangely: Mommy, of course you’re the knight’s horse!
Jiang Xiaoya’s Mommy was of course on the side of justice, just like Jiang Xiaoya!
Water swamp monster: “……”
It stared at the toilet plunger that had been stuffed into its hand.
Those ferocious ambitions about destruction went pa and turned into a toilet plunger.
After Jiang Xiaoya fell asleep, a public service clip played on the television:
An ability user who got pregnant young and thus could only revolve around a child, becoming incomparably haggard.
The enormous creature huddled in front of the tiny television, leaning in to watch very carefully, deeply empathizing with the desperate housewife on the screen.
Late marriage, late childbirth, a happy life!
—It should never have given birth to Jiang Xiaoya so early!
Immediately after, the television began playing footage of a man who had a breakdown and cried bitterly at midnight after walking a beagle. For the first time, the water swamp monster felt that humans actually made a lot of sense; it felt such a strong resonance with humans for the first time.
───♡───
Occasionally, when it was annoyed beyond endurance by Jiang Xiaoya, the youth would troubledly hide away for a while. After all, it was still young itself.
The enormous creature squatted on the rooftop, enjoying its rare private monster time.
It was the first time it discovered that squatting on a rooftop in the rain could be so quiet and beautiful. How long had it been since it crawled through the swamp with ferocity, roamed wantonly, and killed? Some of the water swamp monster’s ambitions, some of its bloody cruelty, were all worn away in the process of raising a little beagle.
Its life was supposed to be wild, not Jiang Xiaoya’s toilet plunger!
But only a few minutes later, when it did not hear the little beagle’s werwer sounds from home, it could not suppress its curiosity. The enormous creature poked its head down from the rooftop and leaned over to take a curious look.
It had thought that after it left, Jiang Xiaoya would be watching television, or playing with her little toy car.
But neither was the case.
The child was hugging her little puppy plush, quietly lying against the window, watching the endless rain outside.
She pressed her little face against the glass, breathed out a ring of white mist, and waited eagerly, motionless, for Mommy to come home.
A child’s world is very, very small—there is only herself and Mommy.
Mommy is the center of a little child’s universe.
The young swamp monster’s ambition and restless desire for destruction instantly melted away under that gaze. It thought Jiang Xiaoya was very troublesome, that what-was-it-called, a little piece of baggage.
But as she looked outside with puppy-dog eyes, waiting for it to come home, the enormous creature’s heart—hard beyond measure, restless and violent—softened.
It very quickly gave up its private monster time and slowly went back home.
Jiang Xiaoya was not a dull child.
She knew that she might have a bit of, that what-was-it-called, separating-pears anxiety disorder.
In her previous life, she grew up in an orphanage. The teachers at the orphanage never hugged the children. One class had more than forty children—there was no way to hug every single one. If some were favored over others, the children would only become even more pitiful. So from childhood to adulthood in her previous life, Jiang Xiaoya had never been held by anyone. That longing was buried very deep, so deep that it turned her into a little dog who was anxious about gains and losses.
Once Mommy went a little farther away, the child became afraid of being abandoned. But if she always chased after Mommy, she felt like a sticky little piece of cowhide candy, and began to worry whether Mommy would start to dislike her.
A child could not sort out overly complicated problems. She only felt a tiny bit of sadness.
She saw the water swamp monster return, and asked Mommy gloomily, “Mommy, was I turned into a little dog?”
This little piece of baggage, with just a small, soft voice, instantly tamed the restless beast in the youth’s heart.
The enormous creature squatted down.
It began to be willing to settle for the ordinary matters of daily life—firewood, rice, oil, salt; a toilet plunger; the little horse of a puppy knight.
“Then you say that everything about me is especially good!”
—Mm. Jiang Xiaoya, everything about you is especially good.
