The System Mistook Me for a Cat

Clouds hung like silk threads by the horizon as the train arrived in Qihe City, where a gentle rain had just fallen. The river rippled, brushing aside green water plants, while the distinct scenery of Qihe City, so different from Jin City, quickly passed by the window, leaving only blurred outlines.

Cheng Cai's parents didn't want her to leave Jin City.

She was a local from Jin City, had attended high school at the Fifth Middle School, and after graduating from university, she returned there… even when she first resigned, the reason she gave her parents was that she "might get a school position." Two years later, that position still hadn't materialized.

Cheng Cai did reveal to Chu Tingwu: "Actually, I’ve been preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam."

Initially, she had only pretended to study in front of her parents, but due to the surrounding environment and atmosphere, and the ample time she had, she picked up her textbooks again.

It felt a bit awkward to talk about this with others, but with Chu Tingwu, she just knew that—

Chu Tingwu: "That's great."

Yes, she would support her.

Even though Chu Tingwu was her boss.

In reality, she was now technically released from her employment with the school and rehired by Chu Tingwu, though her job responsibilities likely wouldn't change much. Still, she felt a bit nervous—

"Will I be fired in a year?"

This was a joke from Cheng Cai, but also a way to voice her doubts.

After a year, when the parrots were completely released from their adoption agreements, her workload would decrease significantly. But now, with the job switch, her salary had increased and become more secure, which made her feel uneasy.

The live-streaming account of the Fifth Middle School would probably be renamed "Shanwan Ranch Bird Park." She was good at managing accounts, but would she just keep posting the everyday lives of the parrots in the future?

That wasn't a bad idea; these parrots could live long enough for her to retire, providing a stable job.

Chu Tingwu: "Ah… There is a bird park, but we're also planning to build a birdwatching museum by the lake. Have you heard about it?"

Cheng Cai: "By the lake? You mean the one at the ranch that’s occupied by the national first-class protected animals?"

Although no tourists had yet been able to get close to the red-rain hawks, since their identity was announced, the small lake at Shanwan Ranch had been featured in several news articles and trending topics. Some enthusiastic birdwatchers from all over had come, armed with professional equipment, buying tickets to spend entire days snapping photos from afar.

Chu Tingwu didn't cancel the collaboration with Yuan Tang due to the birds' presence, and the game reciprocated by making an announcement in the game, adding a small activity about the red-rain hawks, indirectly promoting Qihe City.

Chu ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌‍Tingwu nodded.

Cheng Cai speculated: "Are you… asking me to get involved in the protection of the red-rain hawks?"

Like doing some commentary, peripheral design, publicity, and marketing?

Could she do that? She'd only taken care of parrots and peacocks before!

And those were just cheap budgerigars and regular blue peacocks. Were these the same concept as national first-class protected animals?

Chu Tingwu: "I think… because you don't know anything, it’ll work best. Because I don’t want an experienced, overly educational show. Do you have interest in doing an immersive live broadcast?"

This was actually a suggestion from the publicity department: after the Yuan Tang collaboration ended, they shouldn't initiate a new one for now—because a significant portion of the new visitors were coming to see the birds.

As the red-rain hawks began to build nests, forage, and enter the breeding season, knowing that these birds would migrate after the temperature dropped and had never mass-nested in the country before, birdwatchers were grabbing tickets with the mindset of "seeing them once is seeing them fewer times."

In this situation, another collaboration with another IP could cause conflicts.

But they could collaborate with the National Natural Bird Museum.

This time, it was the museum that approached them, a public welfare collaboration.

A commentator was naturally needed, but the publicity team decided to take a different approach: having a host who wasn't deeply knowledgeable play the role of a newbie, learning alongside the audience about how to interact with fragile, silly-type birds like the red-rain hawks.

They interviewed quite a few people but weren't satisfied.

For some reason, the host's words just felt awkward and grating.

Some hosts had their own styles, which made them stand out, even though they had only walked through the ranch entrance and hadn’t seen the birds yet.

While the publicity department was searching for the right person, Chu Tingwu was also observing Cheng Cai and finally decided to give her a try.

Cheng Cai: "Ah…"

She did have live-streaming experience.

Because the school’s small animal park had two fixed live streams: one was the nature pavilion's camera, a fixed position, livestreaming the animals' daily lives and some simple tasks by the staff, similar to ASMR, creating a peaceful atmosphere often used by viewers as a soothing background.

The other was Cheng Cai operating a drone to livestream the animals' status to their adopters, more like casual chatting, with fans who hadn’t adopted also stopping by to watch. Familiar IDs often chatted in the live stream.

These two types of livestreams had quite a fan base, generating income every month. Cheng Cai thought she was just doing regular livestreaming, but everyone seemed to enjoy it, finding her chats comfortable and natural.

[Unlike other live streams where the UP suddenly gets overly excited over small things, startling me. So annoying.]

She: That's because… there’s not much going on at the small animal park.

"Then let’s try it," Chu Tingwu said, sitting across from her in the car, her cheek resting on her hand, smiling. "You don’t need a fixed theme. You'll gradually get to know the red-rain hawks through your work, so just livestream during work hours. Share whatever you want with the audience."

There was naturally a business subsidy for this, with a minimum of two hours per day, and over four hours counted as voluntary overtime. Additionally, monthly performance bonuses would be calculated based on data.

Cheng Cai murmured, "If this continues, I might really start padding overtime pay…"

Chu Tingwu: "You can say that in the live stream, and let the audience supervise you to not pad videos."

After all, padded videos would definitely affect the final data, which in turn would affect the performance bonus. If the data didn’t drop, then a fixed-position livestream for a few hours wouldn’t count as padding.

-

When the account started its usual livestream, the regulars who clicked in noticed that the Fifth Middle School Small Animal Park’s adoption account had changed its name.

[I remember now… the nature pavilion is gone, and all my familiar ones—Qike, Binbin, Tanghua, and Chengcheng—aren’t here anymore. Now, are there only parrots left? Where were the parrots relocated?]

[Clearly, you’re not in the adoption group or the fan group; they’ve all moved to Shanwan Ranch, and the peacock mom and Chengcheng went together too.]

Since the peacock "Blue" was adopted by the system under Chu Tingwu's family name, Chu Tingwu continued to keep the peacock and parrots together, earning the "Adoptive Care: Adopted Your Own Animals" badge on the account.

Then, everyone saw the familiar UP fronting the camera.

Cheng Cai confirmed the comments in the live stream and also introduced the current situation of the account—

Considering long-term operation, the account would document daily work life from the perspective of a Shanwan Ranch employee, and her job was to manage the account, so the theme would likely be very casual and everyday.

Cheng Cai didn’t rush to start the live stream's main topic, first chatting with the audience about the adoption updates and the changes in her work.

[Not bad, sounds like good pay.]

[Not just good pay… Wusheng is famous for high pay and high standards, and their recruitment requirements are always tough. They spend and earn a lot, but Xiaocheng probably got the boss's direct line.]

[I’m also an old fan of the boss, and the campus recruitment is about to start. Can I get an interview opportunity?]

Occasionally, new viewers searching for information related to "Shanwan Ranch" would stumble into the live stream and wonder what the theme of this stream is. Turning back, they’d be surprised to find out: It's actually an official account?!

Cheng Cai didn't pay attention to these new viewers. Instead, chatting with her old fans helped her gradually regain her usual confidence, finally easing her initial tension. Then, she pushed open the room door and started the official live stream.

She didn't know that her fans were commenting on the live stream:

[The UP master (Streamer) literally embodies me]

[Damn, having to socialize with new colleagues makes me anxious]

[Especially when moving from a cozy small company to a better-paying but much larger one... That’s what life is like, work isn’t a zoo—holy crap?!?]

The woman in front of her, dressed in riding attire, looked puzzled: "Ah? I’m not an employee of the ranch. I’m Chu Tingwu’s horse riding instructor for her and her friends."

Cheng Cai’s live stream started with a misunderstanding, but she only paused for a moment and didn’t feel too awkward. She quickly struck up a conversation with the horse riding instructor.

When the instructor learned that she was a new employee, she was very enthusiastic and took her to the office to introduce her to everyone.

However, apart from the security guards and the staff cafeteria chef, there were less than ten "living" colleagues. The chef even mentioned, "Once the hotel opens, I’ll move to the hotel kitchen. You all can then go to the hotel for a buffet, with even more menu options."

Plus, working at the ranch included free food and accommodation.

But beyond these few colleagues, there were also a lot of non-human, mechanical, and animal colleagues.

The veterinarian introduced Cheng Cai to several types of robots in the ranch.

"Our ranch robots may look like cleaning robots, but they’re actually divided into many types, each with a fixed role. Come on, the boss told us that anyone who’s free should help with your onboarding training—"

The robots were categorized into cleaning, livestock, defense, tracking, and a special model for trainee ranch owners.

Cleaning and livestock robots, as the names suggest, with the latter capable of following cattle and sheep to adjust their movement paths. Defense robots could assist security personnel in intercepting and protecting tourists during violent incidents... And the tracking robots, a recent addition, analyzed surveillance videos to detect special events like theft or lost items, sending reminders to tourists and continuously tracking the lost items seen in the footage.

[I’m actually listening with interest. Has this vet been eagerly waiting too long without new colleagues to chat with…]

Some viewers thought it was the veterinarian’s excellent explanation, which was clear and thorough with added gossip, sharing numerous real-life examples and incidents between robots and tourists, both interesting and well-organized.

But others believed:

It's because the UP owner is such a great feedline!

Being good at listening is also a talent. If it weren't for the uploader's attentive and unhurried approach, the new colleague wouldn't be so enthusiastic, almost talking herself dry.

Cheng Cai even passed the veterinarian a bottle of water, and when the vet took it, she twisted off the cap—then, realizing her mistake, she poured the water into the cap: "Sorry, I’m used to…"

The vet waved it off: "No worries, but I don’t drink from the bottle cap, I can just drink straight from the bottle. By the way, you have such a knack for caring for people, were you a preschool teacher before?"

Cheng Cai: "……"

Cheng Cai: "Something like that?"@@novelbin@@

The vet: "Something like that?"

Cheng Cai: "I took care of some small birds…"

Raising a riotous flock of parrots is like managing a dozen kindergartens. In such an environment, she not only mastered the art of feeding lines to people but also could chat with birds back and forth. She could even simultaneously answer fans’ questions, handle her accounting tasks, and remember her colleagues’ needs.

The vet looked at Cheng Cai and found the girl still wearing a serene and gentle smile, looking sincere and reliable. She said, "Alright, I’ll remember that you don’t drink from the bottle cap."

The vet: "……"

Most people don’t drink like that! Why bother remembering!

Cheng Cai: "To differentiate from the parrots."