"Meeeiiii!" Su Qing screeched. "Why you do that!"

"Errr..."

Mei back away, flustered.

"Bad! Bad! Bad! Evil! Not my friend!" the spirit continued to shout.

"It's not real! They're fine and not uh-"

"You bad! Not friend!"

With those words, Su Qing ran off.

"Wait..."

Before the fight, Mei knew her spirit wouldn't like what she was doing. But she didn't expect him to react this badly, not even listening to her explanation.

Mei stared into blank space for a little before chasing after Su Qing, who seemed to be running in the direction of the gorilla.

----------------------------------------

"So that's what's going on." Da Xing said, nodding.

After running off, Su Qing went on a long angry incoherent rant to him.

"You go away!" he shouted at Mei, who just finished explaining.

"Now, now! Calm down, little spirit." the gorilla pat the puppet's head.

"Hnnn..."

"As she said, this isn't real. You know that, right?"

"Yes... But they not bad. Mei attack no reason..."

"Mn. I get you. But everyone in this tournament came here expecting to fight. They're fine with it, and no one is getting hurt."

"But..."

"Besides, you'll be getting prizes."

"Rob people have prize too. But not good!"

Mei was very glad the gorilla was here to help her "negotiate" with Su Qing. It was a little awkward, however, with how fast she decided to run off earlier before coming back to ask for help.

With Da Xing's "charisma", the little spirit calmed down enough to stop being angry at her. Su Qing was still very adamant that what Mei did was wrong, however, much to her exasperation.

"Now that it's been sorted out, why don't you two make up? Say sorry to each other?" Da Xing smiled.

"No." the little spirit hmphed.

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The gorilla sighed before looking to Mei.

Eh? He wanted her to apologise to that unreasonable little brat? This wasn't fair...

"Sorry," she said, grumpily.

So much for teaching him to be braver.

And just like that, her mood was ruined. She didn't feel like continuing the tournament anymore. Come to think of it, the tournament wasn't even that fun, was it? For the most part, she spent a million years waiting for other people to fight in the first phase, and in the second phase, she just walked through a forest aimless for hours!

This tournament... it was super lame.

"Well... sorry about leaving so soon earlier. I guess I can sit and talk for a bit now?" Mei said awkwardly. "Don't really feel like competing anymore after all that."

"Eh? Seriously?" Da Xing said.

The gorilla looked to the side and scratched his head.

"I'm not very sure what to say, honestly. See, earlier after you left, I decided I would just relax alone instead," he said. "Not really in the mood to talk anymore."

Mei: ...

For a minute, only the sound of a fire crackling and insects could be heard.

"For someone who enrolled so recently, you seem pretty good at body cultivation." the gorilla said.

"I guess."

"How did you even get hurt that badly? I think someone like you should be doing pretty well in the tournament."

"Apparently not."

The gorilla sighed.

"It's not very easy to have a conversation with you, you know? Do you always speak in such short, curt sentences to people or is it just because you're uncomfortable talking to a gorilla?"

Eh...

"I'm not the best at socialising."

"Well, it's something you should get better at then. It's a very important skill in life!"

Eh?!

Why the hell was this gorilla trying to lecture her?

For the next few minutes, Da Xing went on a long rant about how for the first 30 years of his life, he was really bad at socialising and blah blah. But eventually, something something and he learnt the importance of it.

"I do have friends, you know?"

"Eh?" the gorilla widened his eyes. "Oh."

Why was he so shocked? Mei felt a little insulted.

"Sorry. I saw how you were a spirit user and struggled to get along with your spirit and just wanted to give advice... It's important to communicate well with your contracted spirits."

"I got along well with Su Qing before this." Mei was a bit dissatisfied.

"Yeah, I could tell. But with time, it's inevitable. Even friends have disagreements at times. And well, I suppose there isn't always someone to help you talk it out."

"I don't want to act all high and mighty, but I could tell you were struggling to get your point through to little Su Qing." Da Xing said, patting the puppet on the head. "I'm not going to say your contract would have been broken over that, but your friendship could have been strained if it wasn't sorted out."

"...it's not easy to explain when someone is not willing to listen," Mei said.

She hated to admit it, but he kind of had a point. Not that she would say to out loud.

"Su Qing, you're at fault too." Da Xing said.

"Me?" the little spirit sounded shocked.

"Yup. Even if you're angry, you should hear out your friends."

"Hnnn..."

"Can you say sorry to her?"

"No."

Mei: ...

She sighed. Looking back, she didn't really even treat Su Qing like much more than a pet or even pay all that much attention to him.

For the most part, Su Qing was probably only attached to her because of how she "freed" him from the training hall. It wasn't like what the gorilla thought. They weren't even really friends, after all. If anything, she just took advantage of him to get a contracted spirit easily.

Mei felt a bit guilty. Maybe she should try to bond more with him.

Even if he was kind of a brat.

Thinking more about it, back when she first joined the sect, if not for Xiuying, she wouldn't have talked to anyone. She would have just ended up spending her time alone. It wasn't even like the sect truly assigned them to a group. The only thing binding them together was the fact that they joined together.

That would have been fine. Mei didn't think she was the type that needed people around her.

But she couldn't deny that without her friends, she wouldn't have half as good of a time at the sect.

Mei decided. After the tournament, she would try to do something for her friends. Xiuying, Wang Wei and Liu Qiang. Oh, and Yingyi. She almost forgot about him because he almost never talked to her.