Jiang Xiaoya had wanted to kiss it. But in reality, Jiang Ze had already not allowed her to get close and kiss it for a long time. However, it was asleep now, and thus had no right to resist. She huffed and puffed as she crossed mountains and ridges, climbed up onto its shoulder, pressed her face lightly against the sleeping cheek of the giant in the mist, and left a tiny kiss. She looked at the roses scattered all over the ground, and always felt that the fondness written long ago in the notebook might never receive a response.
She thought: if it were possible for it to respond to her, then let a rainbow appear on a rainy day.
As a result, just as she stood up and was about to head back, a dazzling ray of sunlight suddenly appeared beneath her feet. She turned her head and saw sunlight piercing through the dispersing mist and curtain of rain. That brilliant sunlight was so blinding. Passing through the watery haze, it became a rainbow.
In that instant, she did not know whether it was a coincidence of fate, or whether it had heard the voice in her heart.
A month passed. The food Jiang Xiaoya had brought was exhausted. The dampness ushered in a grand plum rain season; she held an umbrella as she walked through the ruined city—without rain boots, she would be soaked through. She passed through the rain-soaked ruins and arrived at a neighboring city to replenish supplies.
But very quickly, she discovered that the nearby cities had all entered a state of alert. Although the swamp monster had chosen a remote ruin, many water ghosts were heading toward that city, and the water vapor and some kind of dangerous signal had reached a critical point. This caused some unrest.
A broadcast voice came from the television: “Nearby city troops are on high alert, but the number of water ghosts has surged, making it difficult to take effective action…”
Under such a hair-trigger state of vigilance, she did not dare return directly to the ruins during the day. She stayed until nightfall, and only then, under the cover of darkness, hurried back to the ruins. It was truly thrilling and tense; the little dog heroine suddenly developed the feeling of being a lone hero facing the entire world by herself.
But looking at the sleeping big monster, she still felt a bit overwhelmed on her own, and hoped it would wake up soon.
While on patrol, she discovered that some helicopters were faintly appearing nearby. However, probably because visibility in the mist was too low, they had not yet searched deep into the ruins. But Jiang Xiaoya suspected this was only a matter of time.
Sure enough, three days later, Jiang Xiaoya discovered messy footprints appearing near the building. She quickly cleared away the traces she had left here. She knew this place was no longer safe, so she simply packed up the tent entirely and temporarily moved onto the shoulder of the giant in the mist.
She loaded her hand gun and ammunition, keeping watch over the slightest movement below. She very much wanted to drag Jiang Ze to a safe place, but it was simply far too huge. She could only shout into the enormous creature’s ear three times a day. Worried that it might not hear her, she even rolled her books into a makeshift megaphone.
Finally, on the afternoon of the second day, the sleeping behemoth moved.
Even a dead person would have been shouted awake.
A furious rumbling sound erupted from above the city. It angrily wanted to find that little mosquito buzzing noisily by its ear.
But when it turned its head, it discovered Jiang Xiaoya holding a megaphone.
Fine then, a domesticated mosquito.
There was nothing to be done.
She hurriedly poked her head out and shouted for Jiang Ze to leave quickly.
Because not far away, on the building where she had originally been stationed, it seemed that someone had discovered it was an excellent sniper position, and many red dots of targeting sights had appeared. The behemoth in the mist snapped a nearby building in half at the waist, and the marsh on the ground immediately gulped and swallowed that building. The deterrent effect of this action was extremely powerful. The red dots disappeared. The little red riding hood in a raincoat sat on the shoulder of the giant in the mist, passed through the collapsed buildings, and soon headed toward the sea, disappearing into the mist.
The humans who came searching, because of the dense water vapor and extremely poor visibility, did not find that terrifying monster in the mist.
But they did pick up a ground full of paper roses.
───♡───
Jiang Xiaoya returned home first, went to bring back Ah Hua who had been taken care of by the neighbors, and boasted at the neighbor’s house about her experience of single-handedly fighting hundreds of guard troops. Grandma handed her a cup of tea, listening with a series of “aiyo, aiyo.”
After freeloading food and drinks for a long time, she led Ah Hua along the coastline toward home, waiting for Jiang Ze to crawl out of the sea—because it was now far too big, and returning home directly would very likely crush their small house.
But after waiting for a long time, she did not see that familiar shadow being washed ashore. It was not until night fell that Jiang Xiaoya discovered a swamp monster standing at the entrance of her home.
That was the first time she had seen Jiang Ze in its adult form.
The juvenile had been a naturally fierce wild beast, but because it always reined in its claws and fangs in front of Jiang Xiaoya, beneath that ferocious exterior there had always been a somewhat dull, blunt temperament, preventing it from seeming overly savage; but now, that dullness had disappeared. The facial features were still familiar, yet the youthful air had faded away, replaced by a nonhuman coolness and indifference. The green pupils were a shade deeper than before.
Just standing in front of her, a powerful, almost tangible wild aura pressed toward her head-on, carrying a heart-palpitating aggressiveness.
After standing silently for a while, she took out an umbrella and asked it, “Mom, when is the rain over your head going to stop?”
It squatted at the doorway, not daring to enter the house.
Yes, it could now control the weather, but very clumsily—wherever it went, it rained; outside was fine, but what about when it came home?
It had grown much stronger. The adult form was now at its peak. Sunlight was no longer its weakness. The bad news was that if it entered the house before it could control the rain above its head, the two of them would both be displaced.
Jiang Xiaoya said that living together with it in the future would give her rheumatism. But after saying that, she carried out a potted plant that had not been watered for a long time and placed it beneath its head to water it. She looked at it expectantly: how great, Jiang Ze—from now on, when Ah Hua bathes, we won’t need to connect a hose.
It was very displeased, feeling that Jiang Xiaoya was making fun of it. It grabbed the back of Jiang Xiaoya’s collar and dragged her over, wanting to pull the dry, tidy little dog under that dark cloud and soak her into a drenched mess together.
Suddenly, it froze.
A very strange, unprecedentedly alluring fragrance pierced through the rain curtain and struck it.
Like someone who had been hungry for a long time suddenly smelling the scent of honey. It lowered its head and realized that the smell was emanating from Jiang Xiaoya’s body. When it became aware that it had developed a kind of appetite resembling hunger, it abruptly shifted its gaze away.
Perhaps it had slept for too long—after all, it had not eaten for a month, so it was very hungry.
She had not yet noticed anything amiss. Squatting beside it and moving the flowerpot, the fragrance followed her like a shadow.
It struggled to hold its breath. Hunger scorched its stomach.
It lowered its eyes and told Jiang Xiaoya to go back inside, saying that the temperature had dropped and he was afraid she would catch a chill. As for itself, having just awakened, it might need to stay outside for a while to recover.
She did not suspect anything and went back to put on a jacket.
Only after keeping a sufficient distance from her did it finally let out a breath.
It thought that after eating its fill, it should be better.
───♡───
At night, it was finally able to control the rain to stop, so that the living room would not be flooded. It returned home and ate enough food, believing that the appetite it had experienced in the afternoon had merely been a momentary illusion. But once it caught that scent again, the familiar, scorching hunger surged back.
Wherever Jiang Xiaoya went, that fragrance drifted there. Like honey of sunlight. It felt extremely thirsty, extremely hungry. It tried to eat even more.
But it was useless. It sat at the dining table in distress, staring at Jiang Xiaoya walking back and forth. Finally, it offered her a suggestion: “Xiaoya, could you change to a different brand of body wash?”
It thought that Jiang Xiaoya might have used a body wash with some kind of food scent.
Jiang Xiaoya pulled up her clothes a little in confusion and sniffed the smell on herself. But this year, and last year, she had been using the same brand of body wash. She felt that the scent was a bit like Jiang Ze’s smell, so she especially liked using this kind of grassy fragrance.
Really?
Its fingers curled up.
Only then did it belatedly realize that what had changed was not the fragrance, but itself.
───♡───
In the mirror, it saw itself after molting into its adult form.
Its voice had become a little deeper. Jiang Xiaoya said its voice sounded very nice now and wanted it to read a passage to her. Some kind of poetry collection. Xuecai?
Its Adam’s apple was more pronounced, and those parts that had once been somewhat nonhuman, with blurred gender, had disappeared. Jiang Xiaoya said it used to have a sense of fragility. Mm, what kind of feeling was fragility? But she said that when it was drenched by the rain, it still had that familiar sense of fragility, and she wanted it to get rained on a few more times for her to see.
It knew it—this bad thing was still harboring some kind of bad intention.
The changes after entering the adult form had come too quickly, making it hard to adapt. And did being an adult mean being this hungry? The intense appetite brought on by her scent meant that no matter how many water ghosts it killed, it could not be filled, no matter how much water it drank, it could not be satisfied.
And yet, they had to live under the same roof.
It felt that it was hungry to the point of weakness, curled up on the sofa, and Jiang Xiaoya asked it whether its stomach hurt.
It wanted to say that it would be fine as long as she went a little farther away. But in the end, it only nodded lightly.
Mm, stomach pain.
She was flipping through books, seemingly trying to figure out why swamp monsters would have stomach pain—could it be that it had eaten spoiled water ghosts?
No, of course not. It thought that as long as she stayed a little farther away from it, that would be enough.
Originally, they lived on the first floor. Because the second floor was a bit drafty from the sea breeze. But now it felt that that drafty place, where fresh air could dilute her scent, would make it much more comfortable. So it moved to live on the second floor.
Fortunately, Jiang Xiaoya was about to start school, and during the day she would be at school most of the time. The aura she emitted would be blown away by the sea breeze, and that would feel much better. It began to calculate every day, only returning home when she was about to fall asleep. Even so, as soon as it got home, it would hide in the kitchen and pretend to be very busy. Then it would open all the windows in the house.
About a week after the molting period ended, it returned home very late at night. It found Jiang Xiaoya still sitting on the sofa watching television. It had just been about to remind her that the sea breeze was cold and that she should cover herself with a blanket.
She turned her head.
Its gaze froze.
Because she was wearing its undershirt. It was very tall, so when she wore it, it looked especially oversized. Her hair was still dripping wet; clearly, after finishing her shower, she had casually grabbed it to wear as sleepwear.
It took a deep breath and immediately wanted Jiang Xiaoya to change out of it. It knew perfectly well her sinister intentions, knew that her stomach was full of bad ideas—because this was not the first time she had done this.
This utterly bad thing. Day after day, all she knew was to harbor wicked thoughts about it.
In the past, it would have used the tone of a parent, calmly telling Jiang Xiaoya to go change out of those clothes. Telling her not to do this again.
But now, it tried to force itself to speak calmly—only to realize that it could not even look directly at her.
She was wearing that familiar undershirt. Like honey wrapped in its scent, giving off a sweet fragrance.
It began to feel so hungry that its stomach hurt. It averted its gaze and tried not to look at her, wanting to ignore her and go upstairs. But Jiang Xiaoya said she wanted to watch television with it. This was their family tradition.
Alright. It reluctantly sat down beside her, trying to focus its attention on the television. Leaning slightly forward, it maintained some distance from her.
She was carefully painting her nails.
Why blue?
Probably some trend again.
Sooner or later, it would end up with a multicolored little dog. It had heard on television that it was popular to punch holes in one’s head. That wouldn’t do. It was still a very traditional parent—doing that would let water into her brain.
It thought to itself, working hard to distract its attention.
But once she finished applying the sparkly nail polish, the little dog enthusiastically leaned over and, very naturally, gave it a goodnight kiss.
It lowered its head and paused for a moment, then suddenly turned to look at her. The surging appetite in its eyes almost burst out. Veins bulged on its fingers, but very quickly it looked away, gasping for air like someone drowning.
It hurriedly said that the weather felt a bit stuffy and that it was going upstairs to get some air.
She, however, asked very warmly if it was all right.
It lowered its gaze and looked away. “I’m fine, Xiaoya.”
She didn’t stop at asking—she even chased after it, following behind until the door blocked her outside. It was the first time it realized how annoying this damned child was. She should change out of that damned shirt, put on her own clothes properly, and obediently roll back to her room to be a good baby.
It lowered its head and turned its back somewhat flustered, not wanting her to see the surging appetite in its eyes. Its fingers curled up, hiding the bulging veins; its tall body was slightly hunched.
Baby, I want to be alone for a while, okay?
She released the doorknob.
It let out a breath.
───♡───
Like flowers reaching their season of maturity.
The Wolf King, too, had reached the season for courtship.
