On a stormy night with wind and rain, two hands slapped against the window, leaving several muddy dragging marks on the glass — such a classic horror movie scene.
The sky outside was brighter than inside the house, so those two hands pressed against the window were especially clear, their thin and withered fingers like the branches of a tree.
Meili jolted awake in fear, completely alert. She lay in her warm quilt, staring at those two hands slowly patting her window. Her scalp kept tingling, as if a whole bottle of soda was being poured into her head.
Her room was on the second floor, and the height of the first floor was nearly three meters. To be able to slap hands onto a second-floor window was undoubtedly that long, stretched-out swamp monster.
Was it because of the rain that he could leave the swamp and come around the house? Meili held her chest, feeling the rapid beating of her heart inside.
She stared at those two hands, slightly sitting up, using her sweat-dampened hand to grope for a stool placed beside the bed.
If the swamp monster could get into the house, she definitely wouldn’t sit and wait for death!
But, as the rain lessened, the hands tapping the window slowly moved away, and it became quiet outside.
Covered in moisture, the fog-like glass window only had two faint handprints left behind.
Ever since she was startled awake, she never fell back asleep. Meili stared wide-eyed through half the night. Only when night passed and dawn arrived did she rub her sore eyes and get up with two dark circles under them.
The rain here fell fast and fierce, clean and decisive, not the least bit fond of dragging out a lingering, dreary drizzle. The sun rushed out early, chasing the tail of the light rain. As always, its rays pierced through the mist among the trees, showing a beautiful golden brilliance.
Meili stood below her window and saw that the wall base, originally overgrown with weeds, now had a small mud pit, with a layer of rainwater pooled inside.
Beside the mud pit lay two mud-stained wooden sticks. Looking at those two broken sticks, Meili’s eye twitched involuntarily.
They were still the sticks she had broken when she hit that monster before.
That swamp monster followed her because he held a grudge? She wondered if she let him hit her back, would this matter finally be settled.
She silently paused for a moment, then went back to grab some tools. She scooped the water out of the mud pit, then built a pile of firewood over it and started a fire.
As long as the soil was baked solid, the mud pit would no longer exist.
To avoid wasting firewood, she also placed a pot on top to boil water.
Determined to block every possible opening where the swamp monster could appear, Meili — who believed she had already escaped from his hands three times — worked solemnly as if facing a great enemy.
As for those two broken sticks, she pushed them into the fire to burn as well, not daring to touch them. What if there was some curse on them?
After confirming that she had resolved all the safety hazards around her home, Meili welcomed a visitor.
Hesha stood at the garden gate with a basket in hand, hesitating and peeking inside.
“Hesha?” Meili didn’t ask why she came. Instead, she directly went forward to open the yard gate. “Welcome, come play.”
Sure enough, Hesha immediately showed a relaxed and happy expression. She had suddenly come over, thinking Meili might be displeased, but instead she was so friendly. That instantly made her feel she was truly being treated as a friend, and her heart bubbled with joy.
“I heard you say yesterday that you were going to plant vegetables but didn’t have experience, so since I happened to be free today, I came to see how your vegetables are doing. Do you want my help?”
Meili brought this enthusiastic girl inside the house. “It’d be great if you could help. I don’t even know whether I planted these properly or not. You take a look for me.”
The two walked to the vegetable patch, and sure enough, Hesha pointed things out quite professionally. “…These are planted too densely. It’s best to leave a palm’s width between them. And these, you can’t water too much, otherwise the leaves will easily turn yellow…”
As she was talking, she suddenly felt a strong gaze. She looked up and saw that near the second-floor window, there seemed to be a figure. She was startled, and when she took a closer look, there was nothing there, only dark green curtains.
Seeing her suddenly pause, Meili asked: “What’s wrong?”
Hesha hesitated, then shook her head and continued explaining small tips about planting vegetables. Meili invited this little friend to stay for a meal, and Hesha gladly agreed, even promising to cook herself.
Meili felt satisfied — finally, she could see how a native girl cooked.
Those odd dishes she usually made, Mrs. Pegg ate very little of them. If this continued, she feared in a while it would be time to hold a funeral.
Lunch was eaten in the garden. The garden was full of blooming flowers, with shade-providing trees and a floral arch.
When Meili first came to this world, the yard had been overrun with weeds and lacked maintenance. Later, while pondering life, she cleaned and fixed the yard bit by bit. Now the garden had revived with beauty and vitality.
The knowledge of fixing the yard and pruning plants was something her sponsor and pen pal, Madam Qin, occasionally mentioned when sharing her life through letters. Madam Qin seemed to be a leisurely noblewoman in her middle years, the type who owned a large garden at home.
Under her influence, Meili also consciously read some content related to gardening and planting flowers.
But if she had known she would fall into such circumstances, perhaps it would have been more suitable to have read more about planting vegetables instead.
Hesha admired her garden endlessly, praising nonstop, “It’s so nice, Meili, your garden is so beautiful. Nowhere around here has such a beautiful garden!”
Meili focused on tasting the food Hesha cooked, feeling a bit disappointed. Not being native, she really wasn’t used to the taste here.
Leaving Hesha to play in the garden, Meili brought food to Mrs. Pegg, yet she still looked as if she had no appetite.
After coming downstairs, Hesha said she needed to go back. She had to help with chores at home and couldn’t play freely every day.
Seeing her gaze still lingering on the flowers in the yard, Meili specially cut a few branches and placed them into her basket.
“Is this for me? Meili, you’re so nice!” Hesha held the flowers, inhaling their fragrance in contentment. She waved and said goodbye. “It must be so lonely for you living alone in this house. I’ll come play with you again next time!”
Watching her turn away, the smile on Meili’s face suddenly froze.
Why did Hesha say she lived here alone? Wasn’t Mrs. Pegg still here?
She stood at the garden gate, with the brilliant garden and silent house behind her. Even with sunshine on her shoulders, her back felt cold in waves.
Seeing Hesha’s figure running farther away, she opened her mouth with difficulty to call out, “Hesha…”
The girl stopped in confusion and looked back, asking with her eyes what else she needed. Meili showed an ugly smile. “I suddenly remembered I need to buy something. I’ll go to the market with you.”
She didn’t even go back into the house. She closed the yard gate and chased after Hesha.
On the way, she was overly silent. Even Hesha noticed something was wrong and thought her friend couldn’t bear to part with her. So she said, “Meili, don’t worry. I’ll visit you often in the future. Even if my parents don’t allow it, I’ll still sneak over.”
Meili: “……” It seemed she had discovered something else again.
“Your parents don’t want you to come to my house, is it because of me?” she asked.
Hesha immediately waved her hands, as if afraid she would be upset. “No no no, it’s not because of you, it’s… it’s because your house is too close to the Great Forest. I heard many beasts appear over there, it’s dangerous, so everyone usually doesn’t come that way.”
She was a child who couldn’t lie, and Meili easily heard the other meaning behind those words.
After walking on the small road for a while, Meili calmed down slightly. She thought for a moment and spoke again, “Your family cares about you a lot. I suddenly remembered my mother too.”
Secretly observing Hesha’s reaction from the corner of her eye, she indeed showed sympathy, holding her arm and comforting her: “Meili, don’t be sad anymore. Mrs. Pegg has passed away. She must also hope that you can forget her and live your life well.”
Meili took a deep breath, suppressing the scream rising up her throat.
Mrs. Pegg has passed away?
Already dead?!
Who, then, was the woman she had been seeing every day during this time?
Mrs. Pegg’s… ghost?
The lingering fear surged like bubbles rising continuously, then bursting open in the depths of her heart.
Calm down! Calm down! Calm down!
It was fine. She had been living with that lady for so long already, and she had never done anything to her, so she should be safe.
She had already seen a swamp monster anyway, what was one more ghost?
Meili kept persuading herself in her heart, barely maintaining the expression on her face. While at the market, she took the chance to ask around for more information about Mrs. Pegg.
She finally understood what the previous “what a pity” she’d heard meant.
Mrs. Pegg had died two months ago, and was buried in the forest near her home, not in the town’s communal cemetery like the others.
Meili sat on a white stone by the low wall, staring blankly at the wildflowers at her feet. Anyone who learned there was a ghost in their home wouldn’t want to go back. But if she didn’t go back, where else could she go?
In this world, she was all alone, homeless. Other than herself, she had nothing.
Not far away, a mud pit let out a gurgle, and a gray figure emerged.
The swamp monster came again.
Meili lifted her eyelids to glance over, her face expressionless, not moving.
If this were yesterday, she would have jumped up to run, but now, she still hadn’t processed the reality of living with a ghost. She felt numb, even a little irritated.
Ghosts, swamp monsters — if they had the ability, come at her. Did they really think she was afraid?
The swamp monster, growing out from the mud pit, left it and approached Meili with a snail-like slowness.
Meili even grew somewhat impatient waiting, crossing her arms as she carefully examined the appearance of this terrifying swamp monster for the first time.
His drooping-to-the-knee hands were holding something, wrapped in mud so she couldn’t see what it was, making a creaking sound as he moved.
Looking up from his knees, his gray-white skin was covered in mud, faint muscle lines were visible, and his waist was actually wrapped with a piece of torn cloth, with muddy water dripping down.
His chest, shoulders, head — Meili hadn’t seen clearly what he looked like. Her gaze was first drawn to the clusters of white mushrooms growing on his shoulders and head.
White mushrooms that grew on damp, rotten wood were sprouting from the swamp monster’s body. It seemed they were well adapted, each tiny umbrella standing upright.
It was the same white mushrooms she had smashed on his head before and now they were growing directly from him.
“Pfft——”
She heard the sound and realized she had laughed at the swamp monster’s ridiculous appearance.
Because he looked so funny with a head full of mushrooms, Meili’s fear of him suddenly eased a lot.
The swamp monster finally reached her, stretching out his long arm and offering the creaking mud ball in his hand toward her.
Meili instinctively leaned her body back with his movement and finally saw what was wrapped inside the mud.
