The little dog let out an awoo and, in one breath, ran three meters away.

Mommy could speak human language now!

However, aside from being able to accurately call out Xiaoya’s name, the rest of the pronunciations were still a bit difficult.

After waking up, Jiang Xiaoya often saw Mommy squatting in front of the small television. Big and bulky, it struggled to follow along with the TV to learn how to speak. Jiang Xiaoya was so moved that her eyes brimmed with tears. Mommy was working so hard just to communicate with her.

A mother’s love is as heavy as a mountain!

Until Jiang Xiaoya ran out to look for Ah Huang and soaked her pants completely in the snow, after which the swamp monster dragged her back home. It bent down and, viciously and clearly, spat out two words: “Debt-collector!”

Jiang Xiaoya stared at her mommy in shock.

That’s right—this swamp monster had been watching parent–child programs all along, diligently studying how to scold children in human language.

It even babbled to itself while drawing a pile of symbols Jiang Xiaoya couldn’t understand in a notebook as notes. Now it could even say proverbs like, “If you don’t beat them for three days, they’ll tear the roof off.”

Jiang Xiaoya also went from “Houhou” to “little debt-collector,” “little bastard.”

When Jiang Xiaoya came to bother it, it would even spit out the two resounding words: “Get lost!”

The little beagle felt extremely wronged—was it really necessary to study so diligently, Mommy!

Most of the time now, the swamp monster still spoke monster language with Jiang Xiaoya, hehe-ing away. Only when it was angry and scolding her would it call her Jiang Xiaoya and switch to human language to lecture her.

One could see how important it was to learn an extra foreign language.

In the past, when the swamp monster hehe-ed its scolding at Jiang Xiaoya, the little beagle would pretend not to understand. Now that it could speak human language, when it lectured Jiang Xiaoya, the child’s head could only droop lower and lower.

Jiang Xiaoya was in great pain!

In the past, she treated Mommy’s hehe sounds as background music, letting them go in one ear and out the other. Now Mommy’s nagging had become clear and precise. That magnetic, youthful voice was as nagging as Tripitaka’s—just raising an eyebrow and fiercely shouting “Jiang Xiaoya” once was enough to make the little kid’s hair stand on end.

Jiang Xiaoya saw the news. It roughly said that the magnetic field around the swamp was especially abnormal. In short, it warned citizens that the terrifying presence in the swamp might have undergone an evolution. Cherish life, stay away from the swamp!

But Jiang Xiaoya didn’t find that Mommy’s evolution posed any danger to society at all.

The swamp monster’s eyesight was better now. Before, it was half-blind; now it could see very far away, even the trace of a tiny ant crawling. Even ripples left by a water ghost several kilometers away were crystal clear. But all these heaven-defying senses were currently mainly used to catch Jiang Xiaoya sneaking outside the swamp to steal spicy strips.

Hehe, damn kid, stealing junk food again!

Elementary schooler Jiang Xiaoya was miserable beyond words.

───♡───

Winter vacation was about to end, and they still hadn’t moved to live in that school-district apartment. Because only in the swamp could they run freely, and Mommy didn’t need to pretend to be a human. So neither of them mentioned moving again.

The swamp monster planned to renovate the house at home when spring came. Jiang Xiaoya was growing up and needed her own separate bedroom. It sent Jiang Xiaoya off to tidy up the miscellaneous items.

Jiang Xiaoya opened the storage room.

At a glance—there was the formula she drank when she was little; written on it were the words “Instant Coffee.” And some tasty little biscuits Mommy had stockpiled the year before—on closer inspection, they were labeled “High-End Cat Food”!

Had she really grown up eating these things?

Jiang Xiaoya: =口=

There was no helping it—Jiang Xiaoya’s ferocious mommy was illiterate. When she said the snow was as white as sheep’s wool, the swamp monster said the snow was as white as a water ghost that had been dead for three days; it often praised Jiang Xiaoya by saying her eyes were eyes, and her nose was also a nose.

Only when Mommy scolded her for “monkey climbing trees” or “reincarnated water ghost” would it suddenly sound cultured.

Jiang Xiaoya remembered that Mommy could see now—should she teach Mommy to recognize some characters?

She dug out the literacy flashcards and ran off to teach Mommy how to read.

What was the little brat babbling on about?

The youth was knitting a hat for the child, distractedly thinking: the kid had grown another inch, her shoes were a bit small; measuring her head circumference, it felt like her head had gotten a little bigger too.

This ferocious monster, of course, couldn’t read. If it hadn’t raised Jiang Xiaoya, it would still be hehe-ing around the swamp, wandering about destroying the world. Learning to use the microwave to heat her meals, learning to use the refrigerator and such, had already taken a great deal of effort.

All that chattering—it couldn’t understand a thing. But when teaching it to read, the little beagle stopped running around in dissatisfaction and quietly nestled by its side. It liked moments like this, so it would perfunctorily respond with a couple of “mm-hmm”s.

When Jiang Xiaoya wanted to check the results of her teaching, the vicious green vertical pupils instantly became round. The youth, usually fierce and menacing, let out hehe sounds from his throat and began pretending he couldn’t understand human language.

Still, in the end, it began to seriously learn to recognize characters.

Jiang Xiaoya wanted to eat shrimp fried rice, but it was hard to buy ready-made shrimp at the base. The youth flipped through a cookbook and realized he couldn’t understand a single word; when he went to the supermarket, he even bought sugar instead of salt, and after coming back, he was nagged by Jiang Xiaoya again.

To coax the child, it handed over its hastily completed homework.

It discovered that it had written her name as Jiang oo.

Last year, Jiang Xiaoya’s exam paper required a parent’s signature, but it had neither a name nor the ability to write.

Looking at the sleeping child, the youth thought: this can’t go on.

The gigantic figure stared at the small literacy flashcards. As snowflakes fell, it clumsily practiced, one character at a time.

───♡───

Winter vacation passed, and school started.

This winter, Jiang Xiaoya felt that she had grown up a lot. In the past, she only knew how to run around and play wildly, taking it for granted that Mommy could help her settle everything. But the half month Mommy spent alone in her molting period suddenly gave the child a feeling of growing up—she wanted to become bigger and smarter, to protect Mommy.

This year, Mommy was going to renovate the house and prepare a new bedroom for her. She also had to go out to search for supplies and kill water ghosts. Life in this swamp wasn’t that hard anymore—Jiang Xiaoya needed to be more sensible!

The swamp monster could now clearly see needles and thread. It knitted a fluffy little dog onto Jiang Xiaoya’s scarf. Being able to see clearly, it could finally braid Jiang Xiaoya’s hair neatly and beautifully.

In the past, it often styled Jiang Xiaoya’s hair into a Lazy Sheep look.

But Jiang Xiaoya was already in third grade. Her arms were no longer so short that she needed Mommy to tie her hair. She said she had grown up and would tie her hair herself from now on, that she couldn’t trouble Mommy anymore. Then, in three swift motions, she tied a messy ponytail and dashed off.

The comb and butterfly hair tie in its hand froze in midair.

Regret was like a faint shade of blue.

The loss that belonged to Mommy was like a butterfly alighting in the shadow of a gigantic being.

The little one no longer let Mommy tie her shoelaces either. Jiang Xiaoya felt she wasn’t a three-year-old child anymore—how could she let Mommy tie her shoelaces for her? So every morning, she put on her shoes early.

The youth squatting down, wanting to tie the child’s shoelaces, paused with his fingers: so it turned out that Xiaoya could already tie such a complete butterfly knot by herself.

In the end, he could only watch as the child took her breakfast and ran off to school in a flash.

It studied the tomato-and-egg stir-fry it had made for Jiang Xiaoya, but the sense of loss was still like butterflies and melancholy blue, lingering and impossible to shake off. The swamp monster told itself that it was the strongest existence in the swamp; it was a good thing that the child didn’t rely so much on adults anymore—what was there to be unhappy about?

It had even found her annoying before and wanted to throw her into the trash can. Now things were so much easier.

But when it dragged its heavy steps out to kill water ghosts, it was like a mountain weighed down by loss.

A child’s growing up is an adult’s loss.

In the past, Jiang Xiaoya told Mommy everything. Now the child had her own little secrets.

On weekends, she ran out with Ah Huang to play at the mall in the base until late at night. She thought Mommy hadn’t noticed her, secretly crawling back home through the dog hole—but how could it not have noticed? Her footsteps downstairs went thump thump thump, and the little dog’s paw prints trailed all the way.

When she followed Ah Huang through the dog hole, the gigantic being followed right behind.

How could the youth possibly feel at ease letting her walk alone at night?

However, it felt that what made it angriest wasn’t this. Because after following her, it discovered that Jiang Xiaoya had saved up all her pocket money. She clearly wanted to eat cake, yet she just stood at the door staring longingly, not going in to buy it.

The swamp monster was extremely angry. It couldn’t even bear to let this bad little thing suffer—what could possibly make her wrong herself like this?

It wanted to beat the child.

───♡───

Little friend Jiang Xiaoya was saving money to do something big.

From childhood to now, Mommy had always revolved around her. Clearly, Mommy was also a youth, yet Jiang Xiaoya had never seen it looking high-spirited and full of youthful vigor. Ever since she could remember, it had been revolving around baby bottles and sweaters, always carrying a maturity completely mismatched with its appearance.

Most youths were irritable and careless. But Mommy was nagging and meticulous, as if it had endless worries.

Jiang Xiaoya saw other youths the same age as Mommy, all playing basketball on the court, having early romances, or busy and ambitious, wanting to conquer the world with their spiritual bodies. But Mommy seemed to have no hobbies, no youth—only Jiang Xiaoya, this little burden dragging it down.

Did it have anything it liked besides Xiaoya?

Jiang Xiaoya pestered Mommy, asking when its birthday was. The swamp monster, of course, had no birthday. Before Jiang Xiaoya bought back a calendar, it didn’t even have a sense of time—only knowing day and night, the changes of spring and winter.

But the little brat insisted on pestering it. So it made one up at random.

Spring, then. The first weekend of spring would be its birthday.

—That was the day it picked up little Jiang Xiaoya.

So Jiang Xiaoya began to keep this spring in her thoughts.

Ferocious Mommy really liked flowers. Because it couldn’t see before, rich scents and sounds became its only entertainment. It was just that there was very little sunlight in the swamp, it rained every day, and each year only a few scattered little flowers would bloom.

Fresh flowers airlifted to the base were especially expensive. Jiang Xiaoya had saved her money for a very long time.

Spring, spring, hurry up and come.

Finally, spring arrived. Everything revived; grass grew, and orioles flew.

The little dog returned home excitedly with the fresh flowers in her arms, holding brilliance and fragrance as she ran toward the house bathed in sunlight.

The swamp monster opened the door and saw the child lifting a huge, radiant bouquet, shouting excitedly, “Mommy! Happy birthday!”

In the sunlight, the little dog’s eyes looked like sparkling gemstones.

In that instant, the tiny bit of loss that belonged to Mommy was blown away by the spring breeze.

Jiang Xiaoya thought it was Mommy’s birthday, but in the swamp monster’s eyes, it was that time had passed too quickly. It looked at the bouquet—this was already the eighth year since it had picked her up.

The fierce youth squatted in front of her and finally said the words that had been lingering in its heart since awakening in winter—

“Baby, you’ve grown so big already.”

It looked at its little Xiaoya again and again.

Living muddleheadedly for so many years, the first time it opened its eyes, the child was already this big.

It was a great pity that its eyes couldn’t see clearly—it hadn’t seen her at three, at five.