In order to verify her guess that she wouldn’t be eaten, Jiang Xiaoya repeatedly stuffed her head into her mother’s mouth. Though it was a bit impolite, this was the only method Jiang Xiaoya could think of after her brain had spun so fast it nearly started smoking. She discovered that her mother would only throw her away and roar at her, and she immediately felt a sense of reassurance she had never felt before: so she wouldn’t be eaten after all.
It was like the peace of mind a naughty child feels upon returning home and only getting beaten once, instead of being thrown into the trash.
Jiang Xiaoya stopped scheming about secretly climbing away. She decided to accept the fact that she had a mother.
This was a world full of lurking danger. Outside was extremely terrifying, and Jiang Xiaoya’s mother was very frightening and very powerful. Its massive body could protect Xiaoya; the area around the prison was full of marshland—step on it and you would sink—but Mother was very tall, and Jiang Xiaoya could ride on her to travel.
Mother’s huge body and vicious fangs all made the child feel extremely reliable. Jiang Xiaoya thought about it—if it really became her mommy, wouldn’t that be very impressive?
However, despite having made up her mind, Jiang Xiaoya was still a little afraid of this swamp monster.
It didn’t know how to coax children, nor would it ever show a gentle expression. It only expressed its irritability and displeasure in the most direct and violent ways. It forbade Jiang Xiaoya from climbing out at will and absolutely did not allow her to approach the swamp. Once it discovered that Jiang Xiaoya wanted to get close to the swamp or tried to climb this prison, it would threaten her very viciously—for example, picking Jiang Xiaoya up, or smashing walls and giant rocks to pieces right in front of her.
Those pale, enormous hands possessed terrifying strength, as if they could crush a person’s skull at any moment. Even an adult with solid nerves would tremble in fear. Moreover, it very much enjoyed watching Jiang Xiaoya shiver in terror, endlessly delighting in frightening the child.
But perhaps because she had never been eaten, the sneaky, cowardly air about Jiang Xiaoya faded quite a bit.
In the first week after deciding to accept her mother, Jiang Xiaoya even mustered the courage to come over and sleep leaning against her.
The swamp monster squatted in the swamp; from afar, it looked like a withered tree rooted in the swamp, or a giant mop. When it moved, its long hair swayed along with it.
Suddenly, it heard a rustling sound. The colossal creature abruptly opened its eyes, its vertical pupils tightening into a thin line in the darkness.
Jiang Xiaoya crawled over like a clumsy little puppy, huffing and puffing. It irritably twitched its fingers, wanting to hook the cub by the back of her clothes and fling her away. But Jiang Xiaoya was too small—if thrown, she would die.
For now, it did not want to kill her. Yet it also did not want the warm little cub pressing against it.
So it could only shift inward a bit.
The prison was very large, but Jiang Xiaoya, tiny as she was, went nowhere else, squeezing and squeezing into its corner.
The swamp monster was especially huge and could only curl itself up, shrinking smaller and smaller.
And yet Jiang Xiaoya’s head still nudged against its body.
The colossal creature flew into a rage. It smashed the floor tiles beneath it, picked Jiang Xiaoya up and shook her, pointed at the shattered tiles on the ground, then pointed at her, letting out furious, rumbling sounds from its throat:
If you don’t want to be smashed into mush, then obediently roll back! Don’t steal its territory to sleep in!
Jiang Xiaoya looked at it and very obediently crawled back into her box to sleep. Just like how every beagle has an acute sense of smell—able to sniff out your bottom line and the limits of your tolerance, then challenge them—this was clearly some kind of beagle’s innate talent. She caught the scent of a bit of loosening.
After discovering that she wouldn’t be bitten to death, a bit of her cowardice disappeared; after discovering that moving closer to sleep with her mother would only get her scolded, the last trace of her cowardice vanished as well.
It was another stormy night. Thunder roared, everything around was pitch-black, with only the howling wind and the clanging of chains blown about. Jiang Xiaoya was startled awake by lightning and couldn’t fall back asleep. This prison was still very frightening at night. She looked left and right, feeling unsafe, and then inched her way toward the swamp monster.
Coiled in the corner was a huge, pitch-black mass. Long hair spread around it like tides, and beneath the hair, pale fingers could be seen. From beneath that hair, the swamp monster opened its green vertical pupils and irritably leaned forward:
What is it now?
Under the fierce gaze of those vertical pupils, Jiang Xiaoya crawled over, very familiarly lifted her mother’s long hair, and draped it over herself. She lay down beside her mother’s massive body.
The swamp monster opened its gaping, blood-filled mouth at her, just about to roar at her, but the moment it opened its mouth, Jiang Xiaoya leaned in and stuffed her head inside. Just like how every child has their own lovey—once they touch it, they feel safe. The instant Jiang Xiaoya shoved her head into Mommy’s bloody maw, she felt comfortable.
The colossal creature: “……”
It angrily lifted her out.
Its expression also changed from v口v to v-v.
Under the lightning, one could vaguely see half of a pale, somewhat irritable young man’s face beneath the long hair.
The swamp monster stared at Jiang Xiaoya, who was sleeping soundly. Back then, it had only casually picked up a little toy that could make noises, planning to raise her until she died and then eat her. But now—
It bared its teeth. Too annoying! Throw her out!
Suddenly, its movement paused. Because it heard faint breathing coming from beside it.
In the rain-soaked world, it was like gently rising and falling little hills.
When nothing could be seen at night, hearing became especially clear.
With a gloomy face, it slowly withdrew its pale fingers, squatted there, and let this little troublemaker continue clutching its hair. It began to calculate finding a suitable trash can.
Throw Jiang Xiaoya into it!
If every time it thought this, a trash can containing Jiang Xiaoya would appear in the world, then this prison would be piled full of trash cans.
───♡───
Hello!
Are you my mommy?
Will you eat me?
If you won’t eat me, can you protect me and be my mommy?
───♡───
Jiang Xiaoya learned to crawl much faster than children her age, because every time she crawled, there was a ghost chasing after her from behind, trying to bite her. Even if it was just scaring her, out of a hundred times, if she got bitten even once by accident, she would be finished!
Moreover, that colossal creature had nothing to do with words like “knowing restraint” or “kind mother.” Every time Jiang Xiaoya saw its ferocious expression, she felt it really wanted to bite her in half.
Each brush with death filled her whole body with strength—when she crawled, she was basically a superpowered child!
Once, she crawled too slowly and was almost bitten by Swamp Monster Mommy. Cold sweat poured out of Jiang Xiaoya, and she screamed anxiously, and at that miraculous moment, Jiang Xiaoya ah-ah-ed out the very first word of her life.
Other children’s first word is always: ma—!
What Jiang Xiaoya blurted out was: help—!
Help! Help me!
She was chased by Swamp Monster Mommy while crying for help like this, crawling from the left side of the prison to the right, then from the right back to the left. Perhaps upon realizing that she could finally make sounds other than werwer nonsense, the colossal creature’s greatest pleasure was no longer chasing water ghosts.
But after the initial terror faded, Jiang Xiaoya gradually stopped making that “help” sound. She began learning to say other words. A child’s ability to imitate was very strong.
For example, right now:
It let out a heh-heh hiss toward her.
The child looked at it.
She leaned closer and shouted at it, “Heh ah—heh!”
The swamp monster: “……”
It sat back down where it was.
It wanted to find a trash can to abandon Jiang Xiaoya again.
───♡───
Jiang Xiaoya was an exceptionally clever child. Although her brain was still very smooth, she possessed intelligence beyond that of an ordinary infant. She often wondered: if it didn’t want to eat a child, then why had it picked her up and raised her by its side in the first place?
Summer was a long rainy season. On rainy days, even the wailing cries of the water ghosts outside could no longer be heard, and the world seemed drowned in the sound of rain.
That colossal creature wandered here, wandering aimlessly, or stood quietly in the swamp like a great tree. Perhaps because it was too quiet, time and years seemed to have been buried together with the swamp in this prison. Only spiders slowly wove their webs.
Jiang Xiaoya knew that Mommy couldn’t see. This wasn’t hard to notice—especially since Mommy still kept that non-mainstream long hair, which only made its already weak eyesight even worse. She could hold a snail up in front of Mommy and it wouldn’t see it; only when she placed the snail onto Mommy’s hand would it fly into a rage and come after her to kill her.
Aside from the game of being chased, the child’s entertainment in this prison was exploring the world.
On this day, Jiang Xiaoya discovered a pale yellow flower in the corner of the wall. It was quite rare, because it rained all year long here with no sunlight, and aside from moss and ferns, very few plants grew well.
She was a child who loved to share. If she picked up a snail, she would call for Mommy; if she found a special stone, she would call for Mommy; even if she fell and landed on her bottom, she would call for Mommy. If Mommy didn’t respond, she would make werwer sounds. The entire silent prison echoed with the voice of a little beagle.
When it hurried over with heh-heh sounds and discovered it was just some trivial nonsense, the swamp monster would let out an angry roar.
Jiang Xiaoya wobbled as she picked up the little flower, then huffed and puffed as she crawled off to find Mommy.
Because Jiang Xiaoya was very annoying, the swamp monster had now left the stretch of beloved swamp it usually stayed in, and had even left its home, locking itself up in a sealed prison next door.
Jiang Xiaoya crawled down the long corridor and knocked on the door:
Mommy open the door, it’sh Xiaoya!
When the knocking sounded again, the swamp monster let out an irritable heh-heh sound:
Courting death!
It was about to grab her and throw her into the swamp to feed the water ghosts!
The colossal creature flung the door open menacingly and glared down in fury.
Jiang Xiaoya was too tiny to see clearly.
It crouched down and glared—
Jiang Xiaoya excitedly wanted to share the little flower. She knew Mommy couldn’t see, so she wanted to crawl over and let it smell it. But even crouched down, the swamp monster was still too tall; she crawled over and raised her arms, but still couldn’t reach.
She grew a little anxious. One step, two steps—suddenly, the child who had been crawling all over the floor grabbed onto the wall and stood up!
She toddled toward the swamp monster, then ah-ah-ah, pounced onto onto its body. She lifted her hand high.
Inside was a pale yellow little flower that had bloomed from the water plants in the swamp.
The colossal creature, just about to reveal its most ferocious expression, froze—
Its vertical pupils slowly became round.
It smelled a fragrance.
It was a faint scent tinged with the smell of earth.
The swamp monster’s eyesight was extremely poor; it couldn’t find where the flower was at all. Every summer, during the season when flowers bloomed in the swamp, it would squat on the grassy ground by the swamp, wandering aimlessly.
Jiang Xiaoya stood up! She could finally walk upright instead of crawling all over the ground! She was so excited that her eyes shone as she waved her arms, ah-ah-ing and holding up the little flower to express her joy to Swamp Monster Mommy.
Its gaze shifted from the little flower to Jiang Xiaoya.
At first, it had only wanted to casually pick up a small little thing, stick it into the soil as a decoration to its boring life. Maybe one day it would eat her. Feeding her absentmindedly, like raising a small spider through the long rainy season.
She was very small, very small. At the beginning she could only giggle, then slowly learned to crawl, grew a bit chubbier, but she was still a tiny little thing, no different from the day it first picked her up.
Until one day, that little sprout joyfully broke through the soil.
She emerged from the earth in its eyes.
It seemed… something was no longer quite the same.
It leaned in closer and sniffed carefully, again and again.
Then, thinking slowly, it reasoned that perhaps it was because it had always regarded this little person as a small reptile, something like a tiny turtle or a little crocodile.
Suddenly, the little turtle could walk upright!
That was indeed quite miraculous.
It crudely sorted that strange feeling in its heart into a simple category, messily packed it up, and tossed it behind its mind.
It picked her up together with the flower, letting out indistinct heh-heh sounds. Amid the boundless sound of rain, it carried her through the prison’s long corridors and headed home.
