I Quit Showbiz and Went Viral Making Animal Documentaries

Xiao Weimo debuted three years ago, but her agency abruptly shelved her, and she still had a full three years to go before her contract ended.

Overnight, Xiao Weimo became a drifting weed in the capital, feeling lost amid everything in the city.

A former coworker from a film crew mentioned that a documentary team was looking for a camera operator. On impulse, Xiao Weimo grabbed her resume and went to apply.

She had majored in photography at university, and she had a 20,000-yuan camera to practice with. She first took a series of photos of the stray cats in her neighborhood, then brought them along to her interview.

She wasn't expecting much, but the documentary team asked just one question:

"Are you willing to go to the northwest?"

Xiao Weimo had barely nodded when they made their decision.

"You're hired."

Xiao Weimo: "?!"

Was this for real? That was so impulsive!

The next day, Xiao Weimo packed her bags, boarded an old green train, and headed northwest.

People in the entertainment industry all applauded the news that Xiao Weimo had been shelved.

After all, a celebrity like her, who tried to ride every male actor's coattails, would do best to leave show business of her own accord as soon as possible.

In the stunning natural wetlands of the northwest, inside a wildlife reserve,

Xiao Weimo wore a hat and camouflage, lying flat on the Gobi Desert as she prepared to film a mother Pallas's cat hunting and raising her young. She had been lying there at a distance for so long that her legs were aching. She couldn't help murmuring,

"Come on, little one. Let me capture your gorgeous face. Look at the camera~"

Who would have thought...

The beautiful spirit really did look her way.

She pressed the shutter and successfully captured an incredible scene of the Pallas's cat hunting, then returning home to feed her babies.

After a year of work, the documentary A Vast Northwest was finally completed and broadcast on CCTV's Documentary Channel.

In the opening interview, the moment viewers saw the young woman in camouflage, smiling brightly with red lips and pearly white teeth, they erupted:

"What the heck? Is that really Xiao Weimo, the one who used to ride male actors' coattails?"

"Don't tell me she filmed the documentary herself? That pretty face can actually handle a camera?"

From then on, the content on Xiao Weimo's Weibo account changed completely.

Her nine-picture grids were filled with stunning, fluffy animal photos that took the internet by storm.

Every day, netizens waited in the comments:

"When will you photograph another Pallas's cat, sis?! Please!!"

"Sis, I want to see a snow leopard, sob! Do I have to get down on my knees and beg you?"

The fans who had once talked behind her back came out to apologize:

"Sob, I'll never accuse you of riding anyone's coattails again. I'm sorry."

"Our sister is too good for male actors. They don't deserve her."

The comments section was full of people chiming in.

Xiao Weimo simply replied,

"Getting a great shot depends on the right moment. Don't rush, everyone."

★

Pre-release: Live-Streaming as the Most Popular Animal on the African Savanna

Blurb: Xu Luoying was rushing around the emergency department, too busy to catch her breath. The very next second, she was transported straight to the African savanna and ordered by the System to livestream eight hours a day for a year. In return, she'd get 8 million yuan: "..."

What was wrong with the bustling human cities? Of all places, she had to end up on the African savanna, probably the most primitive place on Earth.

All she'd done was complain a little about work being stressful!!!

And honestly!! Eight million wasn't much!

She could get 8 million by selling her parents', grandparents', and maternal grandparents' houses!

The System provided all the equipment. Xu Luoying took a phone and a power bank and started streaming. Eight hours was a long time, and it was too hot during the day, so she decided to stream only at night, even though nights were the most dangerous time on the African savanna.

Fortunately, the System agreed to provide anything she asked for.

A pregnant lioness chased Xu Luoying.

Comments: [Does the streamer have any chance of surviving?]

To escape, Xu Luoying asked the System for ten kilograms of fresh beef to give the lioness something to chew on.

When the hyena queen and her pack chased her, Xu Luoying asked the System for 100 kilograms of fresh mutton to keep them busy.

Comments: [The budget is exploding.]

As time went by, the lions, hyenas, leopards, and cheetahs on the savanna all became "wild about" Xu Luoying.

The lioness she'd fed gave birth to four cubs, and the cubs ran into Xu Luoying's arms, begging to be cuddled.

Xu Luoying asked the System for a grooming brush to brush their fur.

Comments: [Where do I apply for this job?]

The System broadcast Xu Luoying's livestream on video platforms around the world.

Everyone on Earth agreed: that young Chinese woman photographer was the one and only expert at both animal conservation and wilderness survival.

When the year was up, Xu Luoying received 800 million yuan from the System, along with a handsome man.

Xu Luoying: "!!! Um, did you give me too much?"

System: [I underestimated the Host's abilities. This is the final income from your global video account. As for all the food and drinks you got, they were actually sponsored by this System.]

Xu Luoying: "...What about him? Was he sponsored too?!"

Pre-release 1: I Woke Up as a Mom of Four

Xin Rong, a wildlife photographer, had worked diligently for years, capturing countless incredible moments in the wild.

She never imagined that after waking up one day, she would have transmigrated into a female cougar.

The good news:

She had become the animal she'd always dreamed of becoming. She'd always wanted to be a cougar.

The bad news:

She was a mother of four.

The original host, no, the original cougar, had given birth to four kittens all at once.

Xin Rong: "..."

━Σ(°Д°|||)━

Fortunately, the original cougar was an excellent queen of the grasslands and an apex predator.

Powerful limbs, sharp claws and teeth.

But the problem was...

Four! Little! Kittens!

Xin Rong had to give herself a thorough pep talk before settling into her new routine:

Hunt: fail.

Hunt: fail.

Hunt: fail.

Hunt: fail.

What else could she do? She couldn't let the whole family starve.

But...

Who the heck was the father of these four kittens?!

Pre-release 2: Who Says a Princess Can't Open a Zoo?

Blurb, revised edition

Hua Nishang was lost as a child and grew up among a wolf pack.

After she was found and brought back to the imperial palace, she was already too used to the wild to put up with the dullness of palace life.

At first, she raised a huge black cat, and the princes and consorts in the palace accepted it well enough.

Her father, the emperor, felt guilty, so naturally he indulged her in everything.

Later, she got a white sled dog as well. An envoy from the northwest had presented it as a tribute, and the princess naturally kept it.

Later still, Hua Nishang's cousin, a general, brought back a tiger cub from a hunt.

Everyone in the palace: "!!"

Was she really going to raise that one too?

Hua Nishang: "Of course."

So everyone in the palace secretly prayed that without a mother tigress to protect it, the cub wouldn't live long.

But a month passed, then a year.

The cub grew up.

Everyone trembled wherever Hua Nishang went.

The only trouble was that the tiger obeyed Hua Nishang without question, as docile as an orange tabby.

Her elder brother, the crown prince, then brought back a whole litter of wolf cubs.

After Hua Nishang had raised them for a few months, the howling in her residence never let up.

Everyone in the palace: "..."

Help.

In the end, they all knelt and begged the emperor:

"Please build the princess a residence of her own. If this goes on, she'll really open a zoo in the imperial palace."

The emperor agreed wholeheartedly and nodded.

That howling really was terrifying.

Hua Nishang: "..."

What a devious scheme. A deliberate act of revenge.

Not long afterward, the young deputy minister of the Court of Judicial Review, exiled to Shu, sent someone to bring the princess a bamboo bear.

Hua Nishang moved into her princess's residence and prepared a mountain covered in lush bamboo for the bamboo bear.

The bamboo garden wasn't enough, so fresh bamboo was cut from South Mountain and delivered every day.

She doted on the bamboo bear endlessly.

Later, everyone knew that there was a zoo in the princess's residence.

Ordinary people could visit for ten coins.

Members of the imperial family and nobility who wanted to enter?

Hua Nishang: "One hundred taels."

Other people in business believe in treating young and old fairly.

Hua Nishang's approach was: rip off whoever has money.

But the admission fees not only paid for fresh meat and bamboo for her precious animals,

they also allowed her to do good deeds on a grand scale.

She became a legendary figure, celebrated for generations.

Theme: Without animals, Earth would be like a blue sky without clouds.