Meili did not know at first where he wanted to take her. Other than that terrifying crying sound, he could not make any other noises, and could not explain to her.
She pinched the swamp monster’s ear, and noticed the scenery around them slowly becoming a bit familiar. She even vaguely saw the wooden roof of a household in the distance, and only then did she remember — this was clearly the swamp near the short trees.
Aunt Maggie died in this swamp. It was said that her corpse was still sunk in the swamp, and no one could fish it out.
What did he bring her here for?
…No way.
Could it be, he wanted her to help retrieve the body?
This thought immediately emerged in Meili’s mind, and with some inexplicable certainty.
The swamp monster held her and walked to the middle of the swamp. He slowly loosened his arms as if he wanted to put her down.
Meili was startled. She instantly choked his neck, legs wrapped tightly around his waist, clinging to him as she said in a low voice, “Stay awake. If you put me down, I’ll sink! Don’t you dare let go!”
“You big dummy, if I really do sink, will you remember to pull me up?”
Feeling her resistance, the swamp monster stopped his motion of putting her down. He looked at her with a confused and helpless expression, tears still silently falling, pitiful like he had just been scolded.
Meili: “…”
Forget it.
He definitely was not trying to kill her in the swamp, he must want her to do something. Let’s assume she guessed right — he wanted her to retrieve the corpse. She should give it a try.
Meili cautiously loosened her legs. She touched below with her toes — the swamp here was even softer and mushier, just a bit of weight and she would sink. She clung to the swamp monster, instructing him to bend down, leaning closer to the swamp following his tilted posture.
Holding back her discomfort, half her body practically slanted into the swamp as she stretched one arm into the mud to grope around.
Before long, she suddenly touched something inside the swamp. Feeling more carefully, the shape was forked — five fingers.
She touched a human hand.
Her hairs stood on end. Meili reflexively withdrew her hand like lightning.
She cursed under her breath and took a moment to mentally prepare herself.
She had already touched it, she couldn’t just stop halfway. Stiffly, she reached again, with difficulty grabbing that cold and slippery hand.
Her other hand, hooked around the swamp monster’s neck, tightened as she urged, “Pull up.”
The swamp monster, already bent close to the swamp by her pulling, slowly straightened up, lifting her and that corpse in her hand up together.
“Hiss— no, no, my hand hurts!” Meili let go of the hand that was about to be torn off. The swamp’s suction was simply too strong. With just one hand, pulling up a full-grown, sturdy woman was almost impossible.
She looked around and quickly came up with an idea, pointing toward the bushes at the swamp’s edge. “Go over there.”
The swamp monster was still staring at the human hand that had been pulled halfway out and was sticking out of the swamp. Meili pushed his head away and urged, “Don’t look, go over there first.”
The swamp monster carried her, trudging through most of the swamp. In the bushes, Meili found what she was looking for — a sturdy tree vine.
Using a sharp stone, she smashed the vine off. Wrapped with the vine and leaning on the swamp monster, she returned to the center of the swamp. She tightly tied the vine around that arm, and even reached into the mud to loop it under the corpse’s armpit to prevent the arm from being ripped off when they pulled later.
“Alright, head to the shore.”
The vine stretched taut. With their dragging, Aunt Maggie’s corpse was pulled out of the swamp, dragged all the way to the swamp’s edge.
The corpse wrapped in mud left the swamp, and Meili noticed that the swamp monster’s tears instantly stopped.
She had thought he cared about Aunt Maggie, but the moment the corpse was dragged out, he no longer paid any attention to it. He did not even look at the body, and returned to his usual appearance, holding her and preparing to leave.
But Meili did not want to just leave like that. Since she had worked so hard to find the corpse, of course she had to look for clues.
She believed Aunt Maggie was not killed by the swamp monster. If possible, she wanted to know who the real murderer was.
Having experienced touching a corpse with her own hands, her psychological tolerance had stepped up another level. Meili squatted down beside the body, enduring the stench as she looked at Aunt Maggie’s corpse.
Very soon, she discovered something unusual.
Aunt Maggie’s appearance had aged a lot. Her hair had become gray-white, her face was covered with many wrinkles. Compared to the middle-aged woman Meili saw last year, she looked as if she had suddenly aged twenty years. That was very abnormal.
Before she disappeared, she definitely did not have such changes.
There was also a wound on her body, cutting from her chest down to her abdomen. Mud had flowed into it, causing the belly of the corpse to bulge slightly.
It was a clearly man-made wound.
Meili scooped some water from a small puddle beside them to wash the corpse and continued her close inspection. This time, she noticed the heart inside the corpse’s chest was gone.
That long cut — was it to remove the heart?
What kind of person could make Aunt Maggie age so drastically in a short time, throw her corpse into the center of the swamp, and even let Aunt Maggie’s husband and son witness that scene?
Was there some mysterious power involved that she did not know about?
“Let’s leave the body here. It’ll be discovered by tomorrow morning. Let’s go.” Meili quietly placed the corpse in a nearby clearing, dragging the swamp monster away from the place.
Her heart was full of questions, and she was silent the whole way. On the contrary, the swamp monster seemed fine again.
After all that running around, she was covered in mud. Halfway on the road she could no longer stand it. Just in time, they passed a small stream. Meili jumped down from the swamp monster and went to the stream to wash the mud off her body.
She had lost one shoe, and the other had been trampled in mud and swamp until it was almost unrecognizable, becoming a shoe filled with mud.
The small wounds on her soles ached faintly under the flow of the water. Meili lifted her foot and waved it toward the swamp monster.
“Look, it’s bleeding.”
The swamp monster once again displayed that melancholic look like he had been scolded. His huge body leaned toward her.
Meili let out a string of ah ah ah sounds, almost thinking he was going to collapse on the spot and crush her. In the end, she realized he was just drooping down weakly, more than half of his body leaning loosely on her knees.
Meili wanted to touch his head, but she could not reach it, so she simply touched his waist instead.
Smooth, like touching a statue.
“Why were you crying so terribly just now? Because Aunt Maggie’s corpse was in the swamp?”
“Yes. If a human corpse remains in the swamp, he will be in great pain, as if there is a wound in his body that is rotting. That is the source of pollution.”
Hearing another voice from behind her, Meili was shocked and turned her head.
She saw the grass behind her shaking, pushed aside by someone, revealing a ten-centimeter-tall little person with gray-black skin.
The little person wore clothing made of fallen leaves, his tiny face showing a serious expression. Behind him, one after another, little people with similar appearances walked out of the grass. At a rough glance, there were at least over a hundred of them.
All squeezed together like a pile of freshly molded clay figures.
“We are the swamp sprites who live in the swamp.” The swamp sprite bent slightly toward her. “We heard the swamp’s crying, so we came up from underground to help him remove the human corpse. We didn’t expect you had already helped him clean it up.”
Other than that first little one who spoke, the remaining mud figurines just stared at her without saying a word — truly mastering the swamp monster’s essence of staring at people.
Swamp sprites? Meili looked at the swamp monster, whose long waist-length body was still draped over her legs.
There was a swamp monster, and now a whole group of swamp sprites too?
Meili: “This has happened before? You all help him fish out corpses from the swamp?”
“Yes. Because he cannot remove the corpse himself, we need to help him. He is the existence that creates the swamp — he is the swamp itself. To us, he is equivalent to our father. It is our duty to help him.” The swamp sprite spoke seriously, his expression straight and stern.
Meili: “…Father?”
Swamp sprite: “Yes, our beloved father!”
Then wouldn’t I suddenly… become a mother?
The swamp sprites did not understand her subtle expression, nor did they see through her thoughts. They simply seemed to be here to visit their old father.
Their “old father” finally stood up from her. Compared to these ten-centimeter-tall little people, his nearly three-meter height made him look even more enormous. Yet judging from their expressions, the tiny clay people looked more kindly.
A group of small clay figurines circled around the swamp monster’s feet, communicating for a while. After making sure he was fine, they prepared to leave with relief. They nodded at Meili, lined up in neat rows, and in an orderly fashion slipped into the grass, returning the way they came.
By now, most of the night had passed, and dawn would soon arrive.
Cold from the stream, Meili stood up. After not sleeping the entire night, she was so exhausted she swayed as she walked.
“You have to send me back. Crouch down a little.”
Meili impolitely climbed onto the swamp monster’s back. Her clothes were already covered in mud, she couldn’t care anymore. The cut on her foot still hurt, and after walking all day, her whole body was sore — she couldn’t walk on her own.
The tall swamp monster carried her, walking into the morning fog before dawn.
The sky was a desolate blend of deep blue and cyan. White mist enveloped them and the forest together.
The swamp monster carried her through the woods, flower-covered treetops brushing her sides. She only needed to lift her hand to pick them.
Leaves shook from the broken flower branches, scattering a row of dewdrops onto their bodies.
Morning birds chirped within the trees. Meili nearly drifted into sleep with the gentle swaying.
Just before she fell asleep, the swamp monster stopped outside the garden. He leaned over the garden fence, half his body reaching inside. Meili, lying on his back, was directly delivered into the garden.
“Creak—” The door sounded softly. Half-asleep, Meili, holding her remaining shoe, lightly stepped into the house, preparing to go upstairs quietly.
The house was pitch-black, with only a little light from the windows. Meili lifted her head and saw a figure standing quietly beside the stairs. Emerald eyes glowed faintly in the dark like a cat’s.
Meili was startled and instantly sobered up.
It was Lady Pegg. She looked at Meili’s disheveled appearance and said, “The smell of mud on you is too strong.”
Meili: “…I accidentally fell into a mud pit and got covered in mud. At this hour, Madam, you’re not resting?”
Lady Pegg stared at her for a moment with an unreadable expression, then returned to her own room.
In the dim light, Meili suddenly noticed — her straw-like hair seemed to have regained some of its vibrant red color.
