As the apex existence at the top of the swamp food chain, the swamp monster found it difficult to understand certain complex human emotions. For a very long time, it believed that Jiang Xiaoya was very easy to die; it protected her with extreme care, thinking that as long as she could live, that was enough.
It could drive away water ghosts with violence and bring back food. It had absolutely no desire to turn her into a dragon.
Because its degree of socialization was very low, it once did not understand what early romance meant. But after watching television for a while, it finally realized: it wasn’t only death that could take away its Little Ya—there was also Little Yellow Hair.
Instinctively, it felt that it could tear Little Yellow Hair to pieces. But the television said that doing so might cause a child’s rebellious psychology, and make her run away from home.
It had worked so hard to raise Jiang Xiaoya, like an old farmer diligently raising a head of cabbage, only for a pig to suddenly come along wanting to root at its little cabbage.
The gigantic creature panicked, but it did not show it. Not until it had sent Jiang Xiaoya off did the behemoth’s green eyes rise and narrow into a dangerous thin line. Dark clouds gathered on the horizon, the sky was extremely gloomy, and the enormous creature in the darkness followed the main summer camp group with a murderous aura, wanting to see exactly which pig was trying to root at its family’s cabbage.
Jiang Xiaoya felt that the weather was a bit off. She looked back a few times and, not seeing Mommy following along, finally let out a sigh of relief. The swamp monster had always liked to secretly follow her, which made Jiang Xiaoya very helpless: ay, if this keeps up, when will she ever be able to become independent. Could it be that even at thirty she’d still have her mom send her to work? No, no.
Little Jiang Xiaoya was immensely strong, sturdy like a cow. But her puppy-dog eyes were especially big, like a pair of black grapes; her face was small, making her look delicate. Her spirit form also had a pair of fluffy long ears—at first glance, she looked just like a lop-eared rabbit.
Only when she turned around would you realize she was a little beagle full of bad ideas.
Every time the kids in class did bad things, the little beagle was always the ringleader—pulling the little tiger’s fur, rooting around in the school’s flowerbeds, ambushing the school bully after class to bully classmates. But every time she got caught, the little beagle’s big ears would droop like those of an innocent lop-eared rabbit: Teacher, I was framed.
If she couldn’t cry, she could even secretly take out some eye drops.
But the beagle demon king was especially loyal. If a friend was being bullied, she would bravely pounce on them, werwer. This kind of heroic spirit made it perfectly normal for delicate little boys to fall in love at first sight.
On the bus, a refined-looking boy shuffled over to Jiang Xiaoya’s side, his spirit-form white bear shrinking shyly into a ball. The one stuffing a love letter into Jiang Xiaoya’s hands was the class’s little top student, Deng Fei.
Deng Fei looked very clean-cut. Although he was often framed and blamed by the little beagle, he still tirelessly copied homework for her and helped her with cleaning. Finally mustering up his courage, he was going to confess to Jiang Xiaoya on the bus!
In the shade of the trees outside the bus window, green eyes narrowed dangerously into snake-like vertical pupils.
But very soon, the following dialogue was heard—
Little Deng Fei: Xiaoya, I love you. I can do anything for you.
The back of Jiang Xiaoya’s head looked very much like a lop-eared rabbit as she told him: she loved her mommy very much, and could even roll around in a manure pit for her mommy.
The little boy’s eyes went wide.
The lop-eared rabbit turned her head, revealing the little beagle’s true form:
“Then would you be willing to jump into a manure pit for me?”
As soon as those words came out, the entire summer camp was calm and peaceful. Any wild bees and butterflies, any budding puppy love of elementary schoolers, all disappeared.
The summer camp ended, and Jiang Xiaoya was picked up and taken home by her mom. On the way, she suddenly had a whim and asked the swamp monster:
“Mom, do you love me?”
For the first time, the swamp monster walking ahead fell silent.
The youth lowered his head.
If loving this damned child meant having to jump into a manure pit, then it was also fine not to love her.
───♡───
The swamp monster raised itself very roughly. It could lie in the swamp for half a month without moving, but raising Jiang Xiaoya couldn’t be done like that. Probably after realizing that raising a child didn’t just mean eating one’s fill and surviving safely for a lifetime, the swamp monster ran to human hospitals to audit many childcare classes; when Jiang Xiaoya reached fifth grade, it switched to going to school to listen to children’s psychology lectures.
The youth actually couldn’t understand those terms, but now it recognized more characters and could even take notes on its own. This monster even had some difficulty holding a pen—its hands were different from humans’, large and webbed, making gripping a pen very strenuous.
But it still had to squat behind that group of adults, writing down notes it couldn’t understand, trying to figure out how to deal with certain complex problems.
So it turned out that there were so many problems in the process of growing up—things like adolescence and rebellion, paying attention to mental health, how to shape a child’s normal worldview… Completely incomprehensible, but if it was going to raise a child, it could only steel itself and learn.
Other people had fathers and mothers sharing the work. The youth could only be both father and mother by itself.
Girls were even harder to raise than boys, because they had more complex physiological cycles and might even be abducted along the road of growing up, requiring more care and concern.
Jiang Xiaoya was in fifth grade this year. In the past, the swamp monster had protected her extremely well. It would never take her on adventures; even when it tossed her into a pile of water ghosts to amuse a child, it would keep a very tight watch.
On the television, a drama was playing in which a rich girl was tricked away by a poor boy. Jiang Xiaoya watched with great relish.
The swamp monster looked at the back of Jiang Xiaoya’s head. It suddenly realized that if it didn’t take her out to see the world, then if someone else later took her to see something new and novel, she would be very easily tricked away. No, no.
So, starting from fifth grade, the swamp monster no longer treated her like the apple of its eye, keeping her only in safe places. It began to bring Jiang Xiaoya along even when going to dangerous places.
On the night the typhoon made landfall, the swamp monster took Jiang Xiaoya and climbed up an abandoned city’s signal tower.
The youth held her in one arm; below them was the eye of the storm amid raging winds. The little dog was blown into a messy little dog, screaming and wailing as she clung tightly to her mom: nooo, mommy nooo don’t take me to jump off a building, I won’t werwer ever again.
The next second, the youth held her and fell from midair.
The youth said: Xiaoya, listen—doesn’t it sound nice?
She heard the tearing gale, the air-ripping sound brought by the acceleration of freefall. She widened her eyes and saw the raging winds sweeping through the eye of the storm, the gloomy sky, the inverted world.
That night, they passed through swamps, gales, and gigantic waves.
They experienced the wild surge poised on the tip of a blade, the fierce wind sweeping across the open plains. Jiang Xiaoya saw a world she had never seen before—dangerous, vast, and beautiful.
Although she was still just a tiny little thing, having experienced the most extraordinary things in the world and seen the magnificence of the eye of the storm, she probably wouldn’t be tricked away by the scenery from the back seat of a poor boy’s motorcycle.
Jiang Xiaoya’s birthday was coming up soon. When she was little, she had rummaged through old swaddling clothes and found her birth certificate, knowing that her birthday was in winter, close to the New Year. From that time on, every year she eagerly looked forward to Mommy’s gift.
In the early hours of her birthday that year, Jiang Xiaoya was dug out of her blankets by the youth, wrapped up groggily like a zongzi, and carried as they leaped between high-rise buildings. The wind that night was very cold; she was wrapped in a scarf by the youth, her head pressed into its chest, and she truly didn’t understand why they had to run so far in the middle of the night. It felt like they had already left Tiandong City!
All right, open your eyes.
The little brat opened her eyes. Above her was the boundless night sky, empty and vast.
Jiang Xiaoya thought Mommy was messing with her!
Where was the surprise!
However, very soon, the sound of a news bulletin came from below—
“On the early morning of January 28, 3015, Halley’s Comet is about to fly across the sky.”
“If you are located in Zhonghang City to the north, you are about to witness a once-in-a-century encounter.”
Before the words had even finished, the sky was suddenly torn apart—
A comet dragging an icy-blue tail flame tore through the air, crashing into Jiang Xiaoya’s abruptly dilated pupils and shattering the entire night sky.
Jiang Xiaoya, happy birthday.
Crossing the rooftops of the abandoned city, the youth carried her on his back and brought her home.
“Jiang Xiaoya, have you broadened your horizons?”
“Then you’re not allowed to sneak away with someone else behind your mother’s back.”
If you have seen Halley’s Comet strike the earth, you will not be moved by a mere starry sky;
If you have been taken flying across the heart of the city, with wind and rain roaring as the world rustles away beneath your feet, you will not have your heart skip a beat for a motorcycle’s exclusive back seat.
But at the same time.
You will only think about Halley’s Comet, the sound of wind in the eye of the storm, and never again see any other scenery in this world.
───♡───
Jiang Xiaoya started to shoot up! The first growth line appeared on her knee—that was the mark left by growing taller, like a little tree. She liked to run around, so she especially easily fell, often tripping without noticing. But it wasn’t because she was clumsy; it was because of calcium deficiency.
Sunlight after the apocalypse was precious. Not getting enough sun and lacking calcium was a problem most children had. But the base’s milk supply had already been cut off; the only milk flown in by air was strictly rationed, supplied only to infants and toddlers.
The little beagle would get leg cramps in the middle of the night from calcium deficiency, curling into a ball and whimpering.
The youth ran to many supermarkets, even went to the neighboring city to look for milk and calcium tablets. But this place was still too remote; they would have to go even farther to find them.
Jiang Xiaoya was no longer a little child. She knew that supplies were scarce in the apocalypse, and wouldn’t make a fuss asking for this or that. Eating more shrimp could also supplement calcium! She had her mom make braised prawns for her every day.
But at night she would still hop over on one foot, calling out—Mom, cramp, cramp!
The swamp monster learned some massage techniques to relieve cramps, but its strength was too great and it couldn’t control it well. Every time, the damned child would wail like a ghost, as if her leg were about to break.
The youth thought: this won’t do.
Jiang Xiaoya was starting to not want to grow taller anymore. Being one meter forty for life would be fine—cramps were just too painful! The kids in her class were the same; everyone sighed and complained. But there was no choice. Food was already getting scarce and prices were starting to rise—how could they complain to adults about not having milk to drink?
Jiang Xiaoya came home from school as usual, but her mom didn’t return until late at night. She called to urge it, and the voice on the other end always said he’d be home soon. Jiang Xiaoya was worried, so she squatted on the sofa and waited for her mom to come back. But the clock hands went around again and again, and the rain outside the window fell heavier and heavier.
It wasn’t until five in the early morning of the next day that the front door opened.
The youth stood at the doorway, soaked through, holding behind him a black-and-white little dairy cow.
In the apocalypse, water ghosts were everywhere; livestock farms had long since fallen, and dairy cows and the like had already ended up in the bellies of water ghosts. Where had Mommy gotten this from? She ran over and smelled pine on it. After the apocalypse, pine trees had disappeared from the Tiandong Base and even the neighboring city—they only existed far away, in the dry north.
Mommy had probably crossed mountains and ridges, gone very, very far.
Jiang Xiaoya now had milk to drink every day. The boiled milk carried a faint grassy fragrance, steaming white mist in the morning light; at night she was no longer jolted awake by cramps, and could finally sleep straight through until dawn.
The dairy cow was named Ah Hua and became a member of their family.
After school, Jiang Xiaoya would lead Ah Hua out to graze, and she even liked to climb onto Ah Hua’s back to help it swat mosquitoes. Before winter arrived, she also stockpiled a lot of grass for Ah Hua. However, Jiang Xiaoya always felt that Ah Hua staying in its little prison room might be a bit cold, so she ran to pester Mommy to knit Ah Hua a milk-cow-colored scarf.
The youth was very impatient and told Jiang Xiaoya not to add trouble for it!
It only wanted to raise Jiang Xiaoya—raising just her alone was already troublesome enough, and now it also had to raise Ah Hua?
And knitting a scarf? The youth told her not to even think about it!
But Jiang Xiaoya was far too good at clinging. She wrapped her arms around Mommy’s neck and refused to come down. In the end, although sounds of scolding echoed through the house, Ah Hua still got a milk-cow-colored scarf.
After the lactation period passed, Ah Hua no longer produced milk. But Jiang Xiaoya’s height also smoothly shot up to 150! Ah Hua continued to be raised in their home, just as naturally as when the youth had picked her up and raised her back then.
───♡───
Now Jiang Xiaoya no longer liked watching cartoons and had fallen in love with all kinds of soap operas. School bullies and school heartthrobs, demon girls and immortal lords. Games had changed from playing house to draping mosquito nets and pretending to be fairy maidens.
However, those vows of eternal love in soap operas rarely moved her.
She knew there were many flowery words in this world, just like the male leads on television promising the female leads a lifetime of happiness, yet always letting them endure countless hardships. But Mommy wouldn’t. When Jiang Xiaoya wanted the stars in the sky, it truly helped her pick them down.
