The little dog came home from school, running toward it at full speed.
Its rain stopped.
After Jiang Xiaoya started school, the swamp monster had time to go farther away. It went to a nearby abandoned city, searching for more high-tier water ghosts and taking their crystal cores. It knew that the more it ate, the bigger and stronger it would become. On the way, it encountered a squad that was almost entirely dead or wounded. This was nothing more than the most common scene in the apocalypse. This ruthless, cold monster naturally only glanced at them and intended to pass by.
But suddenly, the tall swamp monster stopped.
It walked toward them, squatted in front of the woman, and pointed at a small red plaid skirt inside her bag.
After the apocalypse arrived, many of human society’s production lines had stopped. The base’s inventory only had baby clothes left. But Jiang Xiaoya had grown taller than last year and could no longer wear them. In the base, children as big as Jiang Xiaoya could only wear old clothes altered from adult stock. But the swamp monster did not like Jiang Xiaoya wearing old things.
It could save her life. The condition was that brand-new, pretty little skirt.
It walked forward slowly.
Without realizing it, what was supposed to be a hunt for high-tier water ghosts had once again turned into searching for suitable little gifts for Jiang Xiaoya. As if no matter where it went, there was a lively little dog bouncing around in its heart.
When it returned home carrying the pretty little skirt, Jiang Xiaoya was, as expected, extremely happy and ran over to rub against it.
The swamp monster lifted her farther away. It made hoarse sounds as it warned her:
She was almost four years old—no more acting spoiled!
She giggled, leaned over, and nudged her head into its palm.
However, the sense of loss was always there. When they sat together watching television, it listened to her talk about what she had seen at kindergarten and suddenly realized it had been a long time since it had heard her say “Mama this” and “Mama that.” After starting kindergarten, the child no longer revolved around Mama. Her world now had friends, playmates, teachers.
A colorful world unfolded before the child’s eyes.
At kindergarten, she met a little girl named Xiao Chan, who had fought snowball battles with her. Xiao Chan became her good friend, and the two little rascals often huddled together sharing stickers and discussing newly aired cartoons.
Jiang Xiaoya was no longer enthusiastic about sticking flowers into Mama’s head. Every day she only thought about playing on the slide with Xiao Chan;
The teacher of Jiang Xiaoya’s junior kindergarten class was called Teacher Fangfang. Jiang Xiaoya greatly admired the beautiful and intelligent Teacher Fangfang. As soon as she got home, she would open her mouth and say, “Teacher Fangfang said,” “Teacher Fangfang explained—”
As if in the whole world, only her Teacher Fangfang was the truth.
The swamp monster had once wanted to abandon Jiang Xiaoya.
Now it felt that it had been abandoned by Jiang Xiaoya.
The sense of loss surged in like a tide.
It saw on the television that people should care for empty-nest elders.
It poked Jiang Xiaoya and had her look at the TV.
The child was utterly confused.
Look, you have to care for empty-nest elders.
Also care a little about your disappointed Mama.
───♡───
At first, the swamp monster felt a bit lonely. Maybe it was also that something Jiang Xiaoya mentioned, that pear-splitting anxiety syndrome.
That made sense—when a whole pear is split into two halves, the half that gets set aside would of course feel anxious.
But it gradually got used to it. And kindergarten had very little homework, and there were especially many holidays. Very quickly, the swamp monster discovered that every morning at eight it had to send Jiang Xiaoya to school, and by three in the afternoon she would be home! On weekends she stayed at home all day.
Its pear-splitting anxiety syndrome was immediately cured.
And then something even more terrifying appeared. Kindergarten competition was extremely intense. Not only did the children fight with all their might for little red flowers, the parents also had to strive and struggle for their children’s little red flowers. The kindergarten also often assigned a whole pile of handicraft homework, gloriously named parent–child activities.
On weekends, in the morning the swamp monster had to take Jiang Xiaoya out to sweep through water ghosts, heads falling at a flick of the hand, ferocious and mighty. In the afternoon, it had to squat at home helping Jiang Xiaoya do handicraft homework. If it did badly, Jiang Xiaoya’s little red flower would be gone.
What was a kite? And what was a felt puppy?
What? It even had to knit a sweater for the child?
The swamp monster stared at those two long knitting needles, slowly straightened its enormous body, and revealed a fierce expression. It wanted to tell Jiang Xiaoya that in this lifetime she should not even think about making it knit a sweater! However, before it could lean over and voice its terrifying threat, Jiang Xiaoya poked her head over and complained, “Mama, is it done yet! Teacher Fangfang said if I hand in my homework late, my little red flower will be gone!”
The ferocious behemoth: “……”
Jiang Xiaoya lay on its knee with expectant puppy eyes. Its hands seemed to develop a will of their own, clumsily beginning to poke at the strands of complicated yarn.
So annoying, so annoying!!
The teenager’s gloom was like yarn, knotted into something impossible to untangle. In the end, Jiang Xiaoya still handed in a messy lump of tangled yarn, managing to keep her beloved little red flower.
Now that Jiang Xiaoya was in kindergarten, she had learned many, many words. Every day she would sidle up to the swamp monster and sweet-talk it, coaxing Mama into helping her do this and that. But in truth, the swamp monster did not understand praise like “gentle and virtuous” at all. It only knew that Jiang Xiaoya wanted something, so even though it was very annoyed, very annoyed, it still helped her make one little handicraft after another.
There was no helping it—who told it to be Mama?
After Jiang Xiaoya started kindergarten, the things she needed became more and more numerous. The swamp monster did not recognize things like watercolor pens or plasticine, and it did not recognize the extracurricular books she wanted to buy either, so it could only take Jiang Xiaoya along—making zero-yuan shopping very inconvenient.
They exchanged crystal cores for some money. The swamp monster discovered that as long as it put on a big raincoat and looked like a person, it could hold Jiang Xiaoya’s hand and go to the supermarket.
Late at night, a tall raincoat monster that could not tell front from back wandered through the supermarket holding a child’s hand, picked up a pile of snacks and plasticine, and placed both the child and the items on the checkout counter to pay.
The supermarket cashier thought he was hallucinating from staying up late: “……”
Because he was too terrified, he mechanically took the money, then watched helplessly as that terrifying existence stuffed the child into the supermarket’s shopping basket and strode away.
Hey—wait!
That’s a shopping basket!
Besides the endless handicraft homework and the chaotic pile of supplies, the kindergarten was also especially fond of organizing talent shows and cultural performances.
Jiang Xiaoya asked Mama whether she had any special talents.
The swamp monster said her forehead was especially hard.
Jiang Xiaoya was so angry she ran off. However, Teacher Fangfang praised her for singing very nicely, and Jiang Xiaoya gained confidence. She signed up for the singing program and practiced at home every day, her expressive werwer sounds resounding throughout the entire swamp.
The swamp monster heard something—werwer planting suns.
It could not understand what she was singing at all!
Clearly, Jiang Xiaoya had already become immersed in her own art, and since the performance would be at the end of the term, it had no choice but to endure the werwer singing through the entire summer.
The swamp monster could no longer bear it. It lifted the shrieking little beagle up and suggested that Jiang Xiaoya could plant something else—watermelons, aquatic plants, anything. Don’t plant suns every day.
It felt like the swamp was about to be evaporated by Jiang Xiaoya’s singing!
───♡───
Fortunately, the kindergarten junior class was finally about to end. The long-suffering parent finally let out a breath of relief.
On the day the results came out, Jiang Xiaoya ranked third from the bottom in the class. After the apocalypse arrived, kindergarten children not only had to learn to read, they also had to master some basic life knowledge and a common language. Jiang Xiaoya had grown up in the swamp since childhood and did not understand any post-apocalyptic common sense, and so she discovered that she had become illiterate.
All the words on the test paper were ones she knew—so why could she not understand them? Jiang Xiaoya was deeply struck by her results.
That night the child was very anxious, very worried that she had become a fool. It was said that the bigger one’s head, the smarter one was. She ran to look at her reflection in the lake, at that small little self, and felt that perhaps it was because her head was much smaller than in her previous life.
The next day, as soon as Jiang Xiaoya woke up, she told the swamp monster that she wanted to drink nutritional milk powder, that what-was-it-called, Three Deer or something. Drinking it would make her head bigger and make her very smart.
The swamp monster thought Jiang Xiaoya was very annoying. But Jiang Xiaoya was indeed very stupid and did indeed need to supplement her brain.
Because it was raining, the swamp monster went to the human base alone, but after searching for a long time, it only found milk powder with a deer on it.
It thought for a moment.
Then reached out and took three cans.
Jiang Xiaoya drank the deer milk powder, eagerly anticipating her head growing bigger.
But perhaps because the nutrition was too good, she was unusually energetic for the entire summer vacation. Jiang Xiaoya felt it might be that the milk powder had a refreshing, brain-awakening effect, and she looked forward to her intelligence skyrocketing throughout the whole holiday.
The swamp monster did not know whether Jiang Xiaoya had become smarter. It only knew that the already strong and immensely powerful little beagle had become even more unhinged. During the day she ran around climbing roofs and tearing tiles off, and at three in the morning she would still be wide-eyed, her eyes shining brightly, rustling around under the covers pretending to be a cockroach.
The swamp monster secretly threw away Jiang Xiaoya’s milk powder.
It suspected the milk powder had expired and eaten Jiang Xiaoya’s brain.
───♡───
As time went on, the fact that high-tier water ghosts had crystal cores in their heads was no longer a secret. With crystal cores as an aid, the number of humans who possessed mental bodies increased more and more.
When the swamp monster went out, it had seen some humans’ mental bodies. They came in all kinds of forms.
It was said that a mental body was the concretization of a person’s spirit. Because many humans liked to use animals to embody their traits, most mental bodies were animals. Someone agile would be a swift; someone fierce and aggressive would be a tiger… However, it did not take these mental bodies to heart. Because once it drew near, the enormous magnetic field fluctuations would make those mental bodies unable to endure it, fleeing in panic.
Still, humans were evolving. Perhaps after a long time, those water ghosts would no longer be a constraint on humanity. After realizing this, the swamp monster began saving crystal cores for Jiang Xiaoya.
Jiang Xiaoya grew a little taller. Because she wanted to be like Mama, Jiang Xiaoya had disliked cutting her hair since she was little. She kept a head of brown hair, like a fluffy, furry hamster tail. She was only that tall, yet her hair reached below her buttocks. Every day the swamp monster had to spend a great deal of time braiding her little pigtails.
At last, after the summer vacation passed, Jiang Xiaoya entered the middle kindergarten class!
Before starting school, the children in the middle class all had to be taken for mental body testing. At the base, this was a very important matter. After mental bodies appeared, humans were vaguely divided into ranks. Without a mental body, one could not find a high-paying job in the base. Under their parents’ pressure, the middle-class children all became very nervous.
Jiang Xiaoya was also infected by that atmosphere. When she returned home, she was uneasy and unable to sleep.
She got up and guessed with the swamp monster what her mental body might be.
In the past, Jiang Xiaoya had thought she was turned from a little dog, but now she felt she was a child like a lion or a tiger. After all, Jiang Xiaoya, who had been charging back and forth among water ghosts since childhood, was built like a bull. In kindergarten, she could knock over three children with a single headbutt. Her combat power was quite impressive.
But like all parents, the swamp monster thought Jiang Xiaoya’s mental body would be something like a bull or an ape. After all, once she was let go, she would butt around like a bull, and at home at night she would jump up and down like a monkey.
The next day, the kindergarten took the children to be tested. The swamp monster suddenly had an ominous premonition.
This was very rare. Ever since breaking free from that chain, there had been very few things that made this apex predator feel that something was wrong. But during the waiting process, that feeling of being unlucky for an entire lifetime grew stronger and stronger.
Actually, if Jiang Xiaoya really had a mental body like a monkey, it would not be unacceptable.
The enormous creature thought slowly.
Suddenly, a small thing burst out of the corner like lightning, werwer-ing as it charged straight toward it.
