"Oh no, oh no..."

In a cosy brick house, a rather large gorilla paced around the house. 4 metres tall, to be exact.

He hastily flung open his cabinet, putting on a pair of clean white shorts adorned by a drawstring, before rummaging through it.

"Dad? What's wrong?" a small gorilla peeked into the room.

"Oh, uh, some friends came to look for me. Dad will be heading out today!"

"Ooooh! Can I come along?"

"Have you finished your homework?"

"Um... yes?"

"Don't lie to me!"

"Nooooo!"

Having shooed his son away, Da Xing put on a dark blue changshan shirt with faint blue floral patterns, followed by long black pants and a pair of shiny black boots. Finishing up the buttons around his potbelly, he picked a long walking cane off his shelf, helping him stand in a more bipedal fashion.

At last, he looked in the mirror. If not for his height and muscular arms, he almost resembled some sort of elderly gentleman. Hm. He took out a pair of fake glasses from his storage bag, putting them on. So refined! Much better.

As he rushed out, a smaller gorilla spoke to him.

"Hubby, what's with the outfit today? You finally convinced some humans to spend time with you?"

"Eh? Yes, heheh." Da Xing looked away, slightly red.

"I'm so glad! Come back and tell us stories of your trip later, alright?"

"Yes, dear. Sorry, I'm in a rush!"

Earlier, when Mei knocked on the door, she didn't expect a butt naked gorilla to be on the other side. Thankfully, the unspeakable was hidden by his quadruped position, but Da Xing hurriedly rushed back in, apologising anyway.

She supposed here, where the animals lived, they were actually being the odd ones out for wearing clothes.

As she stood outside the massive door and waited, listening to the panicked footsteps of the gorilla, she wasn't sure what to expect... but she certainly didn't expect the refined look of the gorilla that emerged minutes later.

"Ah, sorry to keep you waiting. Pleased to meet you! You can call me Da Xing." he said, with a polite bow.

"Whoa! You look like a completely different person!" Wang Wei exclaimed.

"Heheh. I spent a lot of effort learning human manners! Now, let's not waste any time. We head off now!"

Almost in an overly hurried manner, Da Xing led the way, walking a bit too fast. Despite his towering size, his footsteps were surprisingly gentle and fairly soft. Though his clacking cane was a different story.

Mei and her group of friends had to run to keep up, though Su Qing seemed to have a lot of fun flying next to the gorilla's head.

"Um, Mr Da Xing!" Su Qing shouted. "Where are we going?"

Mei: !!

Oh. She was so preoccupied with thinking meeting Da Xing with her friends would be rather fitting... that she forgot what they would do when they came here. Dammit. She really needed to learn how to plan ahead.

Da Xing... Mei could only count on him...

"We're going to take a hike through the forest! I'm getting some refreshments!"

...

Oh well.

She probably wouldn't have thought of anything better... Reading books together?

Da Xing made a quick stop at a shop run by regular-sized monkeys, squatting down awkwardly. They handed him handfuls of fruit and bottles of juice, which he stuffed them into his storage ring.

"Sorry I took a detour! Let's get going now!"

After half an hour of walking along out of town along a stone river, led by Da Xing, Mei and her group came to a massive lake.

"This is Verdant South's great lake! Um. Wanna take a quick stop here?" the gorilla asked. "I quite like to look at the lake here..."

"Yeah, it's good to stop to sightsee!" Xiuying said, cheerful as usual.

Meanwhile, Yingyi and Liu Qiang looked a bit bored, whispering to each other the whole time. Wang Wei was muttering something under his breath, listening closely, Mei could hear they were pill formulas...

Honestly, Mei was a little bored too. She was starting to regret coming here. At least Xiuying seemed to enjoy it, though Mei wondered if she was just trying to be polite.

They sat upon a huge mat Da Xing prepared, fruit and bottles of juice placed upon it as well. Though, the fruit consisted of weird orange banana at least a metre long, and strange grapelike fruit the size of watermelons... along with normal-sized apples. Around them, the sound of insects and birds echoed.

"Sorry, there wasn't a lot of small fruit in stock. I hope this will do!"

"No worries! I'll cut it up nicely."

Xiuying cut large slices off the fruit in an instant, handing them to everyone. Ironically, no one was actually interested in the normal apples, leaving Da Xing to eat them like raisins.

As they ate, suddenly, a cat-sized fish covered in shimmering golden black scales hopped out, making a massive splash! The group of friends flinched, but Su Qing deftly deflected the water.

"Hmhm!" the little spirit seemed pretty proud of himself.

"Nice one, Su Qing!" Mei gave her best excited voice.

"Yay!"

It seemed like he still wasn't the best at telling fake emotions apart. Mei felt a little bad. Was mocking enthusiasm to make him feel good a bad thing?

"Whoa!" Yingyi got up excitedly. "The fish here are huge!"

"Ohhhh! I want to catch one! Heheh... grilled fish."

As Liu Qiang took out a fishing rod, Da Xing hurried blocked him with a huge hand.

"Wait! Please don't!"

"What? What's the problem?" Liu Qiang waved his rod angrily, seemingly on the verge of starting an argument.

No hesitation starting an argument with a 4-metre tall gorilla... made taller by the cane as well. Mei didn't know if she should be impressed by Liu Qiang or his stupidity. Though admittedly, the primate in question was rather meek.

"Well... it's just that, us spirit animals living here, we've been looking after the fish here for quite a while now. They're kind of like my friends now, you know? I even named some of them... that one you saw was JinJin... so please don't." Da Xing said, fluttered. "A-and some of them are protected species too!"

"Oh..." Liu Qiang deflated, looking a bit guilty. "Sorry, I didn't know."

"Thank you... um, do you want to feed the fish? I have breadcrumbs..."

"Okay..."

Feeding fish he wanted to eat just moments ago...