Jiang Xiaoya felt it might be because Mommy Jiang was sloppy in appearance, or maybe that… non-mainstream thing.

She slowly lay down, her emotions not yet calmed, and when she lifted her head, she saw Mommy Jiang on the ceiling. On the ceiling, the swamp monster slowly twisted its neck, its green vertical pupils meeting the baby’s gaze below, the pupils instantly shrinking into a tiny dot.

Jiang Xiaoya: “……”

Mom, help!

Jiang Xiaoya’s cerebral cortex was just relatively smooth; she wasn’t actually stupid. She immediately sensed overwhelming terror.

But the baby didn’t have many reactions—aside from drinking milk in terror and sleeping in terror, she only widened her already rather large eyes.

She stared wide-eyed in fright, then turned around and pointed her butt at Mommy Jiang.

She tried to comfort herself: Mama had fed her on time for so many days; maybe she just looked a bit frightening, but actually had a loving mother’s heart!

However, that morning, Jiang Xiaoya once again heard that strange sound coming from outside the prison. She hesitated for a moment, then quietly crawled out along Mama’s wet footprints.

The abandoned prison was like a small boat sunken in a swamp; outside lay an endless expanse of swamp lake water. Farther away were the remnants of a once-abandoned town, swallowed by the swamp, with only some especially tall, dilapidated skyscrapers exposed.

Within the forbidden swamp zone lived many high-tier water ghosts. After being killed, the lake water would again give birth to an inexhaustible number of water ghosts. This made the seemingly tranquil marshland conceal boundless danger.

The morning dew was heavy. Amid the damp fog, a group of tall, humanoid shadows appeared hazily, their movements extremely strange. They often wandered slowly through the fog, like specters of the swamp searching for food, letting out low and deep sounds within the thick mist.

This was a kind of creature deathly pale all over, looking more like the Others that appear in certain film and television works— even their eyeballs were blue.

The child held her breath, about to crawl away. Suddenly, she saw a colossal figure slowly crawl out of the swamp. A pale, massive hand casually grabbed a water ghost, crushed its head, as easily and casually as smashing a winter melon at a vegetable market.

The swamp monster was born from the swamp. Unlike other water ghosts, after killing the strongest water ghost it did not become the leader at the front of the roaming ranks. Instead, it lived apart, often standing at the end of the water-colored fog, long hair dripping with water, neck twisted, green-glowing eyes gazing at the wandering water ghosts.

It instinctively knew it was different from them. Later, as it grew bigger and stronger, able to crush the water ghosts’ heads, the swamp monster understood the difference between itself and water ghosts was this: water ghosts were on its menu.

Jiang Xiaoya saw her kind and gentle Mama, her neck twisted at an eerie angle, beneath the black cascade of long hair faintly visible were stark white fangs. From her throat came a terrifying heh-heh sound as she bared shark-like teeth.

Crack, crack.

Suddenly, as if sensing someone spying, the kindly Mommy abruptly turned her head.

Jiang Xiaoya immediately puckered her butt and quietly crawled away like a cockroach.

Seemingly puzzled as to why she was here, the swamp monster let out a very rude heh-heh sound to warn her. But Jiang Xiaoya neither butted heads with it nor enthusiastically sidled over to try to prpr. Instead, she was honestly lifted and put back into the box, obedient to an extreme.

As if noticing the change in her attitude.

The colossal presence overhead suddenly stopped, its vertical pupils slowly appraising Jiang Xiaoya.

Jiang Xiaoya twisted her head in terror and pointed her butt at him.

The tiny baby’s inner thoughts were very rich: Had Mama noticed that she was afraid of her? Jiang Xiaoya thought that maybe because before, it had found that she wasn’t afraid of it and had even treated it as a mother, maternal love had been born, finding her very cute, and that was why it hadn’t eaten her.

She vaguely remembered that in TV dramas from her past life, it was always like this! Once she showed fear, she would be killed.

The little baby suppressed the fear in her heart. Under the threat of death, she turned her head back and looked at Mama.

How about kissing Mama once.

But Jiang Xiaoya was too spineless. She crawled over and stared face-to-face with the colossal being. When the other bared its teeth dangerously, she immediately scuttled back at the speed of light, once again presenting her butt to Mama.

However, Jiang Xiaoya was clearly a bit too confident.

This non-human monster, of course, could not possibly possess any maternal love—what’s more, it was a rough and ill-tempered monster.

At least before dawn, the swamp monster very much wanted to abandon Jiang Xiaoya!

The little baby was growing stronger by the day, able to crawl farther and farther. She often crawled out from corners to launch sneak attacks on it, and because she was so tiny, it was impossible to guard against her. Every time it came close, she would try to prpr it, or wildly rub against it with her soft little cheeks.

Each time, the colossal being would stiffen all over as if struck by lightning, and then the shadow on the wall would slowly explode into a huge hedgehog!

A powerful predator, of course, would not like a clingy cub.

It planned to find a place to throw Jiang Xiaoya away!

Throwing her to feed the water ghosts wouldn’t be bad. But feeding a person to water ghosts would turn them into a water ghost as well. If Jiang Xiaoya became a little water ghost, crawled out of the river, and chased after it prprpr, that would be terrible.

The swamp monster stood quietly in the swamp like a great tree for the entire night, and finally came to a vague realization that it needed to throw Jiang Xiaoya far away!

That place that produced baby bottles would be good. It planned to casually drop her off at that human hospital when it went hunting today.

Right—throw her into a hospital trash bin!

Right now, it just wanted to lift Jiang Xiaoya up together with the big wooden box and throw her away.

But suddenly, the colossal being stopped its movement—

The child’s behavior today was a bit strange—quiet and obedient to an excessive degree. Previously, every time their eyes met, the little beagle would enthusiastically move closer; but now, when it slowly approached, the little baby immediately turned her head away, pretending to be busy looking at the sky, looking at the ground.

Suddenly, the colossal being let out a low, deep roar from its chest.

Jiang Xiaoya jolted all over.

And yet it leaned in closer, baring a row of shark teeth, “Heh—heh—!”

Jiang Xiaoya burst into loud wails.

After a while, she finally managed to stop crying.

The colossal being moved in on her again, leaning close: “Heh!”

Jiang Xiaoya wailed in grief.

The swamp monster observed for a moment.

Suddenly, it tilted its head in a very human-like manner, then, satisfied, twisted its head back.

It decided to abandon Jiang Xiaoya a bit later.

───♡───

That night, a torrential rain fell over the marshlands. The temperature dropped abruptly by more than ten degrees. The abandoned prison’s walls had long since cracked, the wind howled as rain was driven inside, and the night suddenly became unbearably cold.

This place was not suitable for human survival, much less for a cub. A single torrential rain, a single cold snap, was enough to take the life of a young one.

The swamp monster sensed the sudden drop in temperature and slowly walked toward the small box. Young in nature were very fragile. Once the temperature dropped, they would die.

The colossal being leaned in, wanting to see whether the cub had died.

If it was dead, it would just eat it.

The little baby’s clothes were not thick, curled up in the corner, a tiny little ball.

The swamp monster leaned over and began to sniff, checking whether the little baby was still breathing.

Jiang Xiaoya was awakened by the cold in the middle of the night. As soon as she opened her eyes, she hazily saw green eyes drawing close in the darkness; there was also a terrifying, non-human cold breathing sound, accompanied by sniffing, making the little baby widen her eyes in fright.

Actually, Jiang Xiaoya was confused. After all, Mama didn’t look like some mother overflowing with maternal love who would casually pick up a child to raise in despair. Instead, she looked like the type who could swing someone to death at any moment.

So why had she picked her up?

Now she knew the answer. A newborn baby was very tender—fattened up, it would definitely be delicious.

The swamp monster discovered she wasn’t dead, left the box in disappointment, and decided to slowly move back into the swamp to watch spiders spin their webs. It liked to roughly tear apart the webs while the spiders were weaving them.

But perhaps it was the ever-dropping temperature, the cold wind howling past.

It remembered the dry, cold winter in the swamp several years ago. Back then, the swamp monster had only just been born and lived in this abandoned prison. When it was first born, there had been a thick, long iron chain around its ankle, and it had been too weak to break free, only able to be bound within this prison.

The winter wind was very cold. There was no rain, and no rainwater blew in. The swamp ground was so dry it was about to crack, and the tiny droplets of water atop it were frozen into ice.

The swamp monster was frozen into ice along with the swamp. It felt very cold, very painful, letting out terrifying hisses. But it could only wait for winter to pass, for the first rain of spring to arrive.

It waited a very, very long time.

The swamp monster’s slow footsteps paused.

Mm, the colossal being returned to stand before that big box again.

It leaned forward, twisted its neck, and lay solidly over the top of the box.

This way, the wind was weaker.

Just like that, a terrifying black shadow hovered over Jiang Xiaoya’s head for the entire night. Those eerie vertical pupils stared fixedly at her, long hair hanging down to cover the small box, the scene extremely horrifying and strange.

Jiang Xiaoya widened her eyes in terror.

But she was still a baby now, so she could only be slightly startled. Because once she reached forty percent fear, she fell asleep.

───♡───

Maybe Jiang Xiaoya in her previous life hadn’t been that afraid of death—but being eaten alive was another matter!

Because she was checked every day to see whether she was dead, Jiang Xiaoya’s carefree mood was completely gone. She worried about becoming a plate of cold dressed snack and being eaten.

Now, the relationship between the two was extremely subtle.

A bit like a symbiotic relationship between a cockroach and a human.

When the swamp monster appeared, Jiang Xiaoya held her breath and focused her mind, doing her utmost to lower her sense of presence. Even when crawling, she had to scuttle away at the speed of light the moment the other turned its head, afraid it might remember her and smash her to death with a slipper.

She was cautious to the extreme, living like a cockroach.

She often hid behind the wooden box, sticking out two antennae, quietly observing Mama.

Little did she know, this sneaky behavior of hers soon attracted the swamp monster’s attention.

That night, the swamp monster brought back a mutated crocodile. Just as it was about to tear into it, it suddenly felt a strong sense of being watched from behind.

But the moment it turned its head, that sneaky little head immediately disappeared.

The colossal being continued eating. It tore open the prey’s chest cavity, savoring the sensation of its claws shredding flesh. The swamp monster possessed an extremely strong sense of territory and ownership—primarily toward its food.

It did not have the virtue of enjoying sharing. On the contrary, as the apex of the swamp’s food chain, it crudely regarded all the food here as its own, and would kill any challenger that dared to compete with it for food.

Very quickly, it discovered the peeping, sneaky Jiang Xiaoya.

The enormous black shadow let out a low growl and bared its fangs, suddenly raising its claw, clearly about to slam it down. Jiang Xiaoya was so frightened that she plopped down on the spot, immediately wimpily clutching her head with both hands, waiting to be slapped to death.

But she didn’t die for a long time.

She cautiously poked her head up.

A crocodile tail, even bigger than she was, was crudely tossed in front of her with a heavy thud.

Then it turned its back to her and continued eating its own food.

—Alright, that was the worst-tasting part of the crocodile.

Jiang Xiaoya timidly poked her head out and looked at that section of crocodile tail. Clearly, this was it sharing food with her—although it looked extremely unwilling.

The child hesitated a little. Although Mama was terrifying, she didn’t seem to have truly harmed her, and even brought her milk bottles back every day. Maybe… it wasn’t raising her just to fatten her up and eat her?

In this unfamiliar world, deep down, she still hoped she could have a mother.

This hope and longing quickly overcame the fear in her heart.

The little beagle timidly peeked at Mama.

She quietly crawled over, edging a little closer. Seeing that Mama had no reaction, she moved a bit closer again.

This was the first time in the past week that Jiang Xiaoya had come within three meters of Mama.

The swamp monster turned its head.

It observed the child—terrified, eyes full of expectation—for a long time.

Suddenly, the colossal being lowered its body. The green eyes contracted into vertical pupils, a mouthful of fangs exposed, and it let out a terrifying hissing roar at her: Roar roar roar—

Jiang Xiaoya burst into loud sobs.

Too scary!

Jiang Xiaoya wanted to run away!