Beauty and the Beasts

“Hello.” Bai Qingqing waved her ice-cream-wielding hand at the monkey.

The monkey let out two screeches before sticking out an arm from between the steel bars and making excited noises while pointing behind her.

Thinking that the monkey saw something amiss, the startled Bai Qingqing hurriedly turned her head to look at her spouses.

In the end, right as she turned her head, the ice-cream cone disappeared from her hand. When she turned her head back, she realized that the ice cream cone was now in the monkey’s hands.

The monkey licked the cream on the ice cream, and a white ring formed on the fur around its mouth. It screeched, clearly laughing at her.

Bai Qingqing: “…” To think that even animals knew how to bully people.

Worried that her mates would teach the monkey a lesson, Bai Qingqing was about to say something when, unexpectedly, Curtis said, “Forget it, let’s go out and buy another one.”

“Eh?” Bai Qingqing asked strangely, “You don’t mind it?”

Gazing at the satisfied-looking monkey as it ate the ice cream, and also the other monkeys looking enviously at it, Curtis shook his head and said, “They’re already pitiful enough.”

In the forests, monkeys lived very well. Even beastmen wouldn’t mess with them for no reason. Here, however, they lived like tree worms.

Bai Qingqing understood what Curtis meant and suddenly fell silent.

Even someone as cold-blooded as Curtis would feel pity for them. How sad were the other animals of this world?

But what was more helpless was that even though many kindhearted people pitied the animals, there was nothing they could do about it. They couldn’t change the situation. Was their world distorted?

They walked to the panda zone. Having never seen a panda before, the beastmen were a tad surprised. Moreover, the environment was good; basically, it could be considered the zoo’s villa.

They continued moving and saw enclosure after enclosure of animals. Just as they thought they were going to see leopards and tigers similarly locked up in iron cages, they found themselves looking at a lush forest ahead.

“Just like it was shown in the pictures, it’s indeed wildlife.” Bai Qingqing was extremely delighted. She also heaved a sigh of relief. She was really worried that her spouses’ mood would get affected when they saw their species locked up.

“Wait for me, I’ll go to the window to ask how to get in.” Bai Qingqing instructed before running over to the queue.

The wildlife animals were in the innermost section, yet it had the biggest crowd. 40 to 50 people were lined up ahead, and even more were standing by the side waiting. Likely because it was the weekend.

Seeing that the uncle behind seemed amicable, Bai Qingqing found out from him that one had to buy additional tickets to enter the wildlife zone. They could opt for self-drive or tourist vehicle tours.

What surprised Bai Qingqing was that self-drive tours were more expensive than the tourist vehicle tours provided by the zoo.

“Why is everyone standing here and not moving?” Getting impatient from waiting at the entrance for a while, Parker ran to her side and asked.

Bai Qingqing pointed at the window in front. “Need to queue and buy tickets.”

Parker frowned. “So slow.”

Though today was a sunny day, and the noon sun was scorching. Although it was worse in the beastmen world, it was sufficient to make Bai Qingqing’s face turn red.

She sheltered her forehead with a hand and squinted anxiously at the situation ahead.

Parker squeezed Bai Qingqing away and stood in the queue himself. He said, “Go and stand under a tree. I’ll call for you when it’s my turn.”

“Mm, thanks.” Bai Qingqing felt for her wallet in her pocket and said, “There’s a shop over there. Do you want to eat ice cream? I’ll go and buy it.”

“Sure.” Parker had a strong curiosity towards everything new. Curtis had bought that ice-cream cone earlier especially for Bai Qingqing. If Curtis hadn’t been staring, he would long have gone up to take a bite of it.