The swamp monster does not like the sun, hates sunny days, and as soon as the sun comes out it will hide in the swamp. But Jiang Xiaoya cherishes the hard-won sunlight very much, and will happily carry out a little stool and bask herself until she is golden on both sides. She knows Mama cannot come into contact with sunlight, so she warms up Naozi’s head until it is nice and toasty, then happily runs over and nudges its palm.
But when the puppy’s fluffy head rubs over, it feels as if the warm sunlight has truly shone onto the palm. Gradually, it is no longer so irritable and short-tempered on sunny days. It will slowly squat in the swamp and braid a messy flower crown for her, then watch Jiang Xiaoya put on the flower crown and blissfully rush into the sunlight, spinning in circles.
Sunny days are drifting puppy fur.
—so it thinks.
In spring, little flowers bloom all along the edge of the swamp, and butterflies flit back and forth. Although Jiang Xiaoya loves to dash in headfirst and plunge into the flower bushes, she is actually a bit allergic, and every time she is carried back she keeps achoo-achooing nonstop.
The swamp monster thinks spring has nothing to do with it, and hates the lingering drizzle here.
But Jiang Xiaoya says, “Mama, look, there’s a butterfly on your head!”
It lifts its head, and the butterfly lands on the enormous creature’s nose tip.
Fine then, but it’s still so annoying!
In summer, the rain becomes even more unpredictable. Often a single cloud will drift over and suddenly it pours down with a crackling rainstorm. Luckily the swamp monster is big enough—stuffing Jiang Xiaoya under its hair keeps her from getting wet. Jiang Xiaoya says she can smell the scent of earth and grass, and claims that it’s Mama’s smell coming from its body!
The swamp monster curiously sniffs at itself, but cannot smell any scent on its own body. It thinks Jiang Xiaoya’s allergic rhinitis has continued from spring into summer.
Deep in the swamp in autumn there are some ripe raspberries. Fallen leaves carpet the swamp, like a land of gold. Every time after hunting and scavenging supplies on the way home, Jiang Xiaoya insists on picking raspberries. But the puppy cannot stay focused—after walking only a couple of steps she gets distracted, hopping and skipping along behind the swamp monster, stepping on its shadow.
Of course it notices.
It speeds up its steps, moving quickly forward.
It absolutely cannot let Jiang Xiaoya step on its shadow!
There are far fewer activities in winter. The swamp monster and Jiang Xiaoya stay at home. Their home has accumulated a great deal of supplies, making them even more well-off than the humans at the nearby bases.
This terrifying, gloomy swamp becomes peaceful and beautiful, and the only sound that can be heard is the falling of snowflakes.
It’s just that once winter arrives, all the moss Jiang Xiaoya raised dies, and she chatters on for a long time. The swamp monster has no choice but to take her out to play, stepping through the winter snow.
Jiang Xiaoya sees, at the end of the swamp, a big dog hole in the protective fence.
She crawls through it, and on the other side there is a group of children playing in the ruins, probably sneaking out to have a snowball fight while the adults of the Tiandong Base aren’t paying attention. A string of footprints is left behind in the snow. With a “pa” sound, a snowball smacks into Jiang Xiaoya’s head. She thinks for a moment, then also packs a ball and charges over.
Children are very inclusive. Jiang Xiaoya meets a four-year-old little girl named Xiao Chan. Both girls are the super-strong type, and soon heroes recognize heroes and gather together, beating the children on the other side until they howl. But as they are playing, suddenly a little boy lets out a startled cry.
Because deep in the snowy forest sea, a long-haired figure appears, green vertical pupils gazing in this direction. The children scream and, in fear, hide in the ruins. Xiao Chan sees Jiang Xiaoya standing completely still and goes over to pull her.
Jiang Xiaoya likes this new friend very much. Actually, as long as she hid together with the children, she could have made friends with them. But she looks at the familiar figure in the distance, and in the end still lets go of her little companion’s hand and runs off in the opposite direction.
After that time, for the entire winter, Jiang Xiaoya never again went to play on the grassland at the edge of the swamp.
The swamp monster asks her why. Jiang Xiaoya then says she wants to stay at home and watch television.
Jiang Xiaoya is lying.
It smells the scent of a lie. When Jiang Xiaoya lies, her eyes dart around, and the puppy tail sways restlessly.
It also smells the loneliness and dejection on her.
It knows it all.
Jiang Xiaoya actually feels that the swamp is a bit lonely. In fact, not just in winter—spring, summer, autumn, and winter are all lonely. Aside from rain, there is only rain.
Jiang Xiaoya knows Mama is a swamp monster. It even stands, like water ghosts, on the opposite side of humanity. Staying by Mama’s side means she might have to choose a life of isolation.
But Jiang Xiaoya is not a very greedy child; she is more mature than most children. She knows that choosing one kind of life means giving up another. When she was even younger, she had already made such a choice.
From the television, she learned that there are actually kindergartens and elementary schools inside the base. Even with the apocalypse having arrived, humans still uphold the principle that no matter how hard things are, children must not suffer— even if the sky collapses, children must still be sent to school.
However, Jiang Xiaoya has never thought that she would go to school. She would probably stay by Mama’s side, learning how to hunt water ghosts and how to survive in the swamp. This kind of lifestyle might actually be more suitable for this dangerous world.
Moreover, the swamp monster’s eyesight is very poor. If it didn’t have Xiaoya following by its side, it would be very pitiful. Jiang Xiaoya feels that she shoulders a very important responsibility—she must become Mama’s protector.
However, when spring arrives, the swamp regains some vitality. When Jiang Xiaoya goes out with the swamp monster, she meets a little friend dog.
The little friend dog is a small yellow dog that comes to the edge of the swamp every few days. Jiang Xiaoya is very happy; every time she goes out with Mama, she goes werwer charging off to find her little friend dog to play!
───♡───
The swamp monster has never thought about the word “future.” After all, for this monster, life can be lived very well without any planning. She can grow up following it in the swamp all the time; of course, it will raise Jiang Xiaoya very well.
This enormous creature does not like humans, believing them to be extremely cunning. It even harbors some hatred toward the human world because of the chain it bore when it was first born. Yet Jiang Xiaoya is a human.
It sees Jiang Xiaoya sitting at home watching that cartoon she has watched countless times, then plucking little flowers and grass. With no playmates, a child afraid of loneliness most likes to lie by the window waiting for Mama to come home; when it is not at home, the child is like a little dog that nobody wants, her ears drooping.
Yet there will be no playmates in the swamp. Here there is only bloody slaughter. This monster grew up amid slaughter; it cannot understand the human need for companions, for social interaction, because in the eyes of a top predator of the swamp, there is no need for companions—only submission and killing. It understands even less a small child’s sense of loss.
But instinctively, it wants Jiang Xiaoya to be happy.
Just like those hands meant for killing, clumsily and roughly folding flower crowns to amuse Jiang Xiaoya.
The swamp monster begins to leave early and return late for a period of time.
It discovers that children about Jiang Xiaoya’s age carry little backpacks every day and go into a small house to stay there, looking at picture books together, then yelling wa-la-la like monkeys, running and flying about; they also crawl all over the ground, suddenly wailing loudly, fighting with each other. They look like a group of little water ghosts.
It finds it hard to understand human young. But every one of them looks very happy.
However, there is much for the swamp monster to consider. After raising a child, it becomes vigilant and meticulous, cunning and fierce. It cautiously screens locations—there must be sufficient safety, everything must be within control, and nearby there must be water sources or marshland. This way, it can protect Jiang Xiaoya at any time.
In the end, that damp shadow stops at the entrance of Spring Kindergarten.
───♡───
Because Mama has been leaving early and returning late recently, Jiang Xiaoya has no choice but to sit at home watching cartoons. The rain is falling heavily, and Jiang Xiaoya looks uneasily out the window. Although Mama is very powerful, Jiang Xiaoya always worries that with its poor eyesight, it might get lost outside.
Finally, at dusk, the swamp monster appears.
It rudely stuffs a backpack into her hands. Jiang Xiaoya opens it and discovers that inside, stuffed in a mess, are Politics and Philosophy, Advanced Mathematics, and several pieces of stationery.
Jiang Xiaoya feels very bewildered, her head full of fog.
The swamp monster heh-hehs and says it is going to send her to school.
Jiang Xiaoya is uneasy. Hugging that copy of Advanced Mathematics, she looks at it again and again, and does not sleep well the entire night.
Although she is very smart, she is only a little over three years old—is going to university really appropriate?
Early the next morning, the swamp monster carries Xiaoya on its back and leaves home.
They pass through the marshland and the forest sea. The faint morning light filters through the tree canopy, casting beautiful reflections, and the water surface shimmers with ripples.
Before long, Jiang Xiaoya sees the huge signboard of Spring Kindergarten.
She immediately lets out a great sigh of relief.
—So it is sending Jiang Xiaoya to kindergarten.
The swamp monster tells itself that it is mainly because Jiang Xiaoya is too troublesome—wherever it goes, she has to follow. She is small, so it can only let her hold its hand, which is really a hassle. As long as it sends her to school, it will have plenty of private monster time.
When it goes out hunting, it will no longer need to pull a water ghost with one hand and Jiang Xiaoya with the other; and it will no longer have to be tormented by Jiang Xiaoya fiddling with its hair. It should be able to breathe a big sigh of relief.
But aside from when she was sick, the swamp monster has never taken Jiang Xiaoya to a human base.
In this monster’s eyes, human bases are dangerous, and moreover… she is so small—once she gets mixed into a crowd, her scent will no longer be detectable.
Its eyesight is poor to begin with; if it does not tightly hold on to Jiang Xiaoya, it will not be able to find her.
It has raised her from such a tiny little thing to where she is now. Clumsily learning to tie her hair, tying her shoelaces over and over again, learning how to tell her bedtime stories.
If it were to lose Jiang Xiaoya—what should it do?
As they walk on, within the reflection of the lake, the ferocious and terrifying predator stops in its tracks, looking at the little one beside it.
Those vicious, dangerous vertical pupils slowly become round, become larger.
Then they fill with liquid.
Suddenly, Jiang Xiaoya sees green drops of water falling down. She thinks it is raining, and lifts her head in confusion.
The enormous creature lets out a roar and presses her head down, heh-hehing fiercely at her: don’t lift your head!
Jiang Xiaoya’s head feels very heavy. She suspects Mama is sad and crying, but her head is pressed down by the big one and she cannot lift it at all, leaving her no chance to verify this guess. Mama is so huge, and so ferocious—it kills without blinking, has a terrible temper, crushes water ghosts’ heads one in each hand, and is especially rough. It does not seem like something so sensitive at all. She cranes her head, wanting to say something, only to be heh-hehed at fiercely by the big one again.
She can only squat beside the huge swamp monster, squatting together with it by the lakeside for quite a long while.
Sigh, what an unreasonable adult.
Finally reaching the kindergarten gate, Jiang Xiaoya is once again instructed at great length by the enormous creature.
In the whole world, only Jiang Xiaoya understands the swamp monster’s language.
When it goes hulu hulu, it means she must remember to eat; when it lets out terrifying hissing roars, it is to scare Jiang Xiaoya into behaving; and if it says bulu bulu—
That means, Xiaoya, I love you.
Carrying her little backpack, she walks toward the kindergarten, turning back at every step to look at that enormous, shadow-like monster beneath the big tree.
Before going in, she suddenly deng deng dengs back through the morning light toward it, and quickly gives it a kiss.
Jiang Xiaoya’s Mama is a ferocious and rough swamp monster.
When she was very, very small, her home was a barren, desolate swamp—but there, Jiang Xiaoya received an abundance of love, rich and complete enough to support her for an entire lifetime.
