Chapter 3: Three Little Teeth

Jiang Xiaoya was a baby with a strong will. Every time she drank her milk, she would clutch the bottle tightly, and she gradually got used to the rough rocking that came with it.

Unknowingly, she began acting like a real baby, with her biggest daily thrill being the scheduled milk bottle drop. By the way, Jiang Xiaoya had never once heard her mom actually make the formula.

It was just that whenever it was time for her milk, her mom would go out, leave the house, and by the time she came back, Jiang Xiaoya would have a bottle.

Now that she was eating her fill, Jiang Xiaoya could faintly see the scenery as the sun rose. Through the prison-bar-shaped windows, she viewed a wasteland of wilderness and swamp.

This led Jiang Xiaoya to a puzzling conclusion:

Mom, I think our milk is free-range.

However, a baby’s brain capacity is small, and her brain was too smooth for any confusion to linger; it would just slide right off her slick cerebral cortex.

Jiang Xiaoya’s daily routine as a baby was to eat, sleep, and repeat. Occasionally, she’d close her eyes and let out a few weird wer wer sounds to get her mom’s attention. But as dopey as she seemed, she did have her own goals.

Aside from her main goal of going full kelp, she was also set on building a relationship with her mom!

As an orphan in her past life, Xiaoya lost her mother at a very young age. She really liked her new mom and often looked up at her with sparkling eyes.

Her mommy was a tranquil and enormous long-haired beauty.

Her silhouette was as majestic as a mountain range.

However, her mom never held her or spoke to her. Besides giving her a bottle and shaking her violently, she engaged in zero communication or interaction.

But if you said her mom didn’t like her, that still wasn’t quite right. Her mom would often just linger above her, staring down at her motionlessly for hours.

This must be what they call ‘a mother’s love, silent as a mountain.’

Jiang Xiaoya wanted to connect with her mom and be her sweet, caring little daughter. After all, she was a rescue and had to be proactive to maintain this hard-won mother-daughter bond. She was incredibly enthusiastic about it, but every time she tried to get close, that gloomy mountain above her head would slip away quickly.

She’d scooch forward, and the mountain would fly backward.

Blocked by her wooden crate, Jiang Xiaoya could only give up with a sigh.

She figured her mom was probably the type who loved her dearly but was too shy to show it.

But that was okay. She was currently working hard on learning to roll over. As soon as she could crawl, she’d be able to snuggle up to her mom for sure!

---

The Water-Marsh Monster quietly watched the baby through its curtain of long hair.

Its vision was poor; the world in front of it appeared as a hazy, chaotic blur. Hearing was one of the few senses it relied on to perceive its environment. It carefully detected every one of the infant’s tiny, subtle movements.

It was like searching for a single, singing flower in a world of silence.

This Marsh Monster was savage and bloodthirsty. For a very long time, it had been like a dark cloud in the sky, lacking any sense of self.

It hunted solely out of hunger, fought for territory, and killed instinctively. It saw no difference between itself and the other Water Ghouls. Except, its body was much larger.

The Water Ghouls were little monsters. The Marsh Monster considered itself a big, big, BIG… a super-big monster.

It could effortlessly tear those high-level Ghouls in half. It could devour anything, even this fortress-like prison.

But beyond that, its self-awareness was no different from that of a cloud. Of course, it was much worse than a cloud. It lacked a cloud’s virtues, being more like a black thunderhead, constantly on the verge of a torrential downpour.

It was the most savage predator in this Forbidden Zone. Like the other Ghouls, it was driven by violence and a cruel desire to kill. It lacked emotions or humanity. It certainly didn’t rescue the baby out of compassion. It was more of a… curiosity.

The baby was clearly still in her novelty period. She only made her little wer wer sounds when she was hungry. She had big eyes and a tiny body and couldn’t even crawl. She was like a little decoration in the corner, not occupying much space.

This prison in the swamp had been abandoned for ages. Besides the endless drumming of the rain, it was utterly quiet.

For a long time, the only other living being here had been the spider slowly weaving its web on the ceiling.

The Marsh Monster had previously caught many high-level Ghouls and, instead of killing them, would quietly watch them struggle in the swamp, just to hear some rustling sounds amid the relentless rain.

This was a cruel, completely inhuman monster.

Perhaps, once it lost interest, it would eat her without a second thought.

But that would probably take some time.

So, with a strange sort of patience, it observed her, awaiting the day its interest would finally wane.

---

That day arrived much sooner than expected.

On one of those peaceful, quiet evenings, Jiang Xiaoya was in her wooden crate, ah-ah-ing as she practiced rolling over.

Suddenly, success! Like a turtle flipping over, she made it. She was thrilled to discover her little arms and legs had enough strength now. She could climb out of the box!

The moment she crawled out, Jiang Xiaoya heard some familiar sounds.

In her first few nights in the abandoned prison, she would always hear the sound of something being torn apart, followed by a hair-raising chewing noise, a grating crunch-crunch, and the smell of blood.

This was a horror world, after all. Danger was bound to be lurking outside.

Jiang Xiaoya figured there were probably many zombie-like monsters out there. But her mom was likely a very powerful user of special abilities because Jiang Xiaoya hadn’t seen so much as a single monster hair in their home.

The night deep in the swamp was pitch-black. In the distance, Jiang Xiaoya vaguely saw a tall shadow with long hair. She immediately started huffing and puffing as she happily crawled toward her mom.

Not far away, the giant monster was dragging its dinner. A trail of green blood dripped behind it, leaving a dark stain on the ground.

Suddenly, the Marsh Monster stopped.

It heard a strange noise.

It slowly lifted its chin and saw that Jiang Xiaoya’s little wooden crate was empty.

Its green eyes instantly narrowed to slits!

The giant monster looked around, but its vision was too poor to see anything. It let out an angry hhhh sound. It began sniffing the air for her scent and quickly located the escaping Xiaoya.

Prey was always trying to escape from under the nose of this half-blind creature.

But their fate was always the same: to be torn in two, or to become fertilizer for the swamp.

It paused briefly, then lunged forward like a lightning bolt, rushing toward Jiang Xiaoya.

Still stained with fresh blood that dripped to the ground, it arrived before her in a fury, lunged close, and from its chest came a guttural “Hhhh… Hhhh…”:

Human.

Little human.

Get. Back. In. The. Box!

It casually crushed the head of the Water Ghoul in its hand as a bloody deterrent. Green blood dripped to the floor. The scene was utterly terrifying.

However, Jiang Xiaoya was currently focused on taming her own four limbs. As a cub whose cerebral cortex was so smooth a fly would slip if it landed there, she was single-mindedly puffing her way toward her mommy’s long hair.

Three meters, one meter… Jiang Xiaoya finally reached her target!

Mommy, I can crawl!

The angry hhhh sound in the Marsh Monster’s chest died out.

It slowly lowered its head.

Jiang Xiaoya happily crawled past her mommy’s feet. Wer wer!

And happily crawled back the other way. Wer wer!

She crawled all over the floor, expressing her excitement.

When her mom didn’t react, she reached up with an ah ah, trying to grab her mom’s beautiful hair to get her attention. She eagerly felt her way up the hair, patting around for a long time, but couldn’t find her mom’s head.

Where’s her head?

She patted around again, confused.

The giant monster let out an impatient hhhh.

The baby’s eyesight was bad, but her hearing was fine. She immediately responded to her mom with great enthusiasm.

Yeah, yeah! Your baby can crawl!

You must be so happy for me, Mommy!

“…”

The giant monster slowly straightened its body.

It concluded that this cub might be an idiot.

The giant monster’s pale hand, twitching in the air, tried several different positions:

It wanted to swat her dead, but she was clinging tightly to its hair. Killing her would mean ripping out a huge chunk of its own mane.

It wanted to bite her dead, but Jiang Xiaoya was too tiny. On its body, she was like an ant on an elephant. It could lower its head and chew for ages and still not know where she was.

Besides, Jiang Xiaoya was very short. Bending over to bite her while she was on the ground would be far too undignified.

Finally, the terrifying, pale, webbed hand clenched and unclenched, then circled around, plucked her up, and rudely stuffed her back into the large wooden crate.

The giant monster’s vertical pupils stared hard at her:

Stay put!

---

And so, Jiang Xiaoya once again had a thrilling brush with death.

In this high-stakes drama, a total of 0 people were frightened.

Now that Jiang Xiaoya could crawl, her range of activity was no longer limited to the wooden box. She began to explore the world. Because she had so little strength and stamina, she would often get stuck head-first on the edge of the crate, unable to get up or down, and would let out a weird wer wer cry for her mom to rescue her.

When she rolled over and got her head stuck under her own butt, she’d also yell for Mommy’s help.

But more than crawling around the dangerous, abandoned prison, her favorite thing to climb was her own mother.

She often felt her way to her mom’s hair and started climbing up her body. Her enthusiasm was never dampened even when she was rudely and barbarically pulled off.

The little beagle was a persistent animal. She’d be excitedly trying to climb her mom again a moment later.

She would only be quiet for a little while when stuffed back in her box. But soon, she would poke her head out again, like a little gopher.

The moment the giant monster wasn’t paying attention, she’d seize the opportunity to scurry out.

And pitter-patter, she would continue exploring her world and harassing her mom.

Perhaps because of all the activity, Jiang Xiaoya woke up starving in the middle of the night.

She opened her eyes to see a massive shadow looming over her, its vertical pupils glowing with a green, savage light.

The little beagle poked her head out: Mommy, hungry, food-food.

The giant monster didn’t move.

The cub was adorable at first. You picked it up, fed it some milk, and it made noises. Very low-maintenance.

But now it was scrambling up and down, crawling all over the place, and making random wer wer sounds.

It stretched out a pale hand with its sharp claws, clearly intending to strangle her.

But the moment the hand came near, the little beagle immediately and expertly latched onto its fingers and started licking them. Slurp slurp.

She couldn’t help it! She’d grown up without a mom. At kindergarten parent-teacher conferences, she could only watch with envy as other kids were held by their mothers. It was only natural for her to be a little extra enthusiastic with her mom now!

The giant monster’s vertical pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinholes.

Swoosh! It snatched its claws back and let out an even more terrifying, disbelieving hhhh.

The giant monster wanted to lean in and roar at her—but it was afraid she’d lick its face.

It hesitated, then carefully moved a little farther away before letting out an even angrier sound: “Hhhh… Hhhh…”

But now, Jiang Xiaoya could crawl!

She enthusiastically crawled out of the box.

And, like a little bull, she rammed her head right into the shadow above. Moo!

“…”

The giant monster scrambled away on all fours across the ceiling.

---

These life-or-death situations played out daily, but Jiang Xiaoya was getting chubby!

Because the baby had been on the road with that squad, sleeping out in the open, her vision development had been delayed due to malnutrition. Now that she was eating and drinking well, she had filled out considerably, and her eyesight had improved along with it.

But more than the spiders in the prison or the endless waterweeds outside, the thing Jiang Xiaoya wanted to see most clearly was her mother’s face.

Jiang Xiaoya lost her mom young in her past life and was filled with love for this new one. There were no lights where they lived, it was always raining outside, and the light was very dim. Plus, babies sleep a lot, so she had missed many chances to get a good look at her mom.

Soon, a rare, rain-free day arrived at the prison. The daylight was bright.

The baby was overjoyed. Ah ah, she tried hard to open her eyes wide, crawled out of her box, poked her head out, and finally got a clear view of her mother.

The Water-Marsh Monster was incredibly tall, casting a gloomy and massive shadow in front of the baby.

The infant poked her head out, trying to see her mom’s front, letting out a little “Maaaah” in Baby-speak to get her to turn around.

Sure enough, her enormous mommy turned around.

The long, eerily black hair swung around.

And it was still… long hair.

Jiang Xiaoya plopped back down in her box.

My dearest mommy-chan…

How come you look the same from the front and the back?