After Turning Into An Animal, I Rely On My Face To Make A Living

Shi Qiao woke up from the cold.

Obviously one second she felt her soul leaving the grassland and floating into the sky, and the next second she was led to another pure white world by the mysterious power.

Passing through the pure sky, there were blue and silver glaciers underneath. Most of the entire continent was covered with ice and snow. Everything she could see was cold colors without any warmth of the grassland. She didn't come back to her senses for a long time.

Turning her gaze back to herself, she felt that she was unsteady after walking upright again, and then she saw the forelimbs on both sides covered with gray fluff like fins.

There is also a pair of short legs hidden under the body.

Feeling the push from the other cubs around her, it took Shi Qiao a long time to barely digest this fact.

She turned from a leopard into a penguin cub!

Shi Qiao looked up at where she was. Behind her and in front of her were penguins wearing black and white tuxedos. They only had these two colors on their bodies. They were the second type of penguin that inhabited the Antarctic, the Adélie penguin.

A statue of an Adélie baby like a thinker stood motionless, causing other penguin parents to turn to look at her, and then turn to look after their little babies.

This little penguin is thin, weak, and looks a little silly. She will definitely not survive long in such a harsh place as Antarctica.

Shi Qiao had no idea what other adult penguins thought of her. She was still wondering who that mysterious force was, and how could it drag her from Africa to the Antarctic.

Does this mean that she can live another life?

"Gāgā——" The demonic cry brought Shi Qiao out of her thoughts and back to the real world. Only then did she realize that there was not only another cub around her but also an adult male Adélie, who seemed to be her father.

The breeding season has just passed, and Antarctica is in late spring and early summer. All penguin eggs finally break out of their shells after a month of incubation and grow into little penguins that can run and jump in the summer.

The little penguins that are not yet capable of moving are all dependent on their parents for feeding. The Adélie penguin couple takes turns working every day, going to the sea to catch food, storing it in the crop, and bringing it back to feed the chicks.

Such feeding work is very arduous and puts a lot of pressure on the Adélie penguin couple.

Shi Qiao saw the female Adélie penguin swaying back from the beach, and the penguin chicks waiting in the nest with their fathers all made hungry sounds: "Jiūjiū."

The sounds of young penguins are still more tender and sweet than those of adult penguins. The male penguins stretch their necks to call their partners and help them guide the location of the nest to avoid finding the wrong husband and feeding the wrong young.

Not to be outdone, the old father in their nest stretched his neck longer than anyone else.

Yes, it was them, not just herself.

Shi Qiao found that another baby was standing in the same pile of stones as her. The other baby was a male penguin of similar age, who should be her brother.

Many Adélie penguins during the breeding period will lay two penguin eggs at the same time. During the incubation stage, another penguin egg will be dropped and damaged. At this time, all hope must be placed on the second penguin egg. 

Even if two eggs hatch perfectly and both Adélie pups survive, competition among the pups will continue.

Such as now.

Shi Qiao looked at the female Adélie mother running from a distance. The other male penguin chick next to her screamed louder than anyone else, and even left the pile of stones and ran towards the mother first.

If there are two cubs in a nest, one of the two cubs must not have enough to eat.

Unfortunately, she was the one who couldn't get enough to eat.

Her brother Eric was not the only baby penguin who ran to meet the food in his mother's mouth. Other little penguins had been hungry for a long time and jumped over to find their mother.

There are scenes of two cubs competing for food.

Each little penguin needs to eat thirty kilograms of food before it is fully grown, which is a heavy burden for adult penguins.

They have to raise their young and ensure their own nutrition, and the food they can supply is not endless.

The Adélie chicks in the second-born family will be walked around by the adult penguin parents who return with food. The purpose is to see which of them runs faster and determine the winner.

The penguin chicks were running on the way to get food. Compared with their body flexibility and physical strength, many cubs tripped over the bumpy snow or were squeezed behind by their brothers and sisters. Once they fell to the ground, they could only watch as their parents fed all the food into the mouth of another cub.

Only the little penguin who wins the chase can become the final winner.

They are walked again and again and forced to compete again and again. In the end, the stronger one will become the child with the best chance of survival in the eyes of the parents.

If they don't want to starve to death, they still have to work hard to get food.

Shi Qiao didn't have time to lament the cruel selection of Adélie's parents, so she raised her short legs and ran outside.

Regardless of whether it is the grassland or the Antarctic, nature's law for animals is that the weak will eat the strong. Now if she wants to survive, she have to fight tooth and nail to compete.

The little penguin, the thinnest among the cubs, is still not used to walking with both feet on the ground. She stumbles even after two steps. After being a leopard on the grassland for so long, he no longer remembers the feeling of walking on only two legs.

Shi Qiao flapped her flippers on both sides to maintain balance, and her flippers grasped the slippery protrusions of ice and snow on the ground, clumsily following Eric.

Eric reached his mother's side first, but the old mother did not spit out the food from the crop and fed it to him immediately. Instead, she focused on the little penguin that was waddling along.

The cub looked at it with its dark and moist eyes without blinking, making the old mother unable to bear not giving it a chance.

They are all born and hatched by herself through hard work. It would be a pity for anyone to give up.

The old mother quickly took a few steps forward and walked up to Shi Qiao. Then she changed to a runner and ran straight past her two cubs, flapping her flippers and barking twice as she ran, deliberately stimulating them to chase her.

Shi Qiao, who was originally lagging behind Eric, was now the one closest to her mother. She quickly turned her head and chased after her mother.

Her brother who was much stronger than her behind her was not to be outdone. He chirped and rushed towards her, with the momentum to push her aside and have the last laugh.

The moment she came into this world and found herself transformed into a penguin chick, Shi Qiao felt empty in her stomach.

She is not a cub that has just hatched out of its shell, but a cub that has grown for many days. She no longer needs to be held in the arms of her parents for warmth anytime and anywhere.

According to the hunting speed of Adélie's parents who take turns going to the sea every day, a normal cub should not be this hungry. It must be because she can rarely beat Eric in a running race.

Without another meal, she would most likely starve to death before her parents returned from the next hunt.

For Eric, it was an easy meal-grabbing competition, but for Shi Qiao now, it was the last straw to survive.

Thinking of this, the little penguin sped up the speed of flipping her legs, and followed her mother crookedly, looking for opportunities to get in front of the other person so that the other person could see her.

Eric, who was used to always being the winner, would not let the opponent steal his rations so easily. His screams became more and more fierce, his flippers flapping on both sides, and he relentlessly tried to overtake the opponent from behind.

Shi Qiao was not very fast, and the little advantage she had just now was overtaken by her opponent in the blink of an eye. The flippers of the two little penguins collided with each other. Neither one gave way to the other. They both wanted food rather than brothers and sisters.

Not just them, but in any family with two children, the two cubs are born to compete.

There are only so many resources that parents can provide. It can only support the smooth growth of one cub, and the other one will be eliminated sooner or later.

Shi Qiao didn't want to be the one eliminated, and obviously, neither did the other party.

Eric hit the little penguin hard, trying to knock her to the ground and seize the initiative.

Having been immersed in the grassland for many years, Shi Qiao had already sensed the opponent's intention when the flippers connected. How could this little fledgling thing succeed? She dodged the opponent's attack with just one jump, and even knocked Eric to the ground, who had no strength to recover.

When the other person is on the ground flapping his arms vigorously and trying to stand up, it is the best time for her to get the food first.

Shi Qiao didn't give the other party a chance to reverse the situation. She dug her toes into the remaining snow on the ground and ran to the old mother one step at a time. She raised her head and opened her young beak at the other party and chirped.

The old mother looked at the little girl who reached her side first this time in surprise. She opened her mouth and fed the krill stored in the crop into her mouth.

The small fish and shrimp filled with the smell of sea water slid into the throat and were broken into pieces by the barbs on the tongue and palate into a size that was easy to swallow. Before Eric could do it, Shi Qiao finally had her first full meal in Antarctica.

Perhaps because of her thinness, the old mother did not keep much food for herself. Most of the krill caught from the sea went into Shi Qiao's stomach.

The little penguin smacked her mouth with satisfaction and let out a loud burp.

Eric got up from the ground and opened his beak to his mother again, but the mother did not open her mouth to feed him a second time. There was no food left.

Shi Qiao ignored Eric's angry look, flapped his flippers, and followed his mother back to the gravel nest. She found a warm spot between two adult Adélie penguins and squeezed herself in.

After the old mother came back to rest, it was time for the old father to go to the sea.

The two adult Adélie penguins did not communicate for too long in the gravel nest. The journey to the ocean is very long. Sometimes they have to swim more than 100 kilometers to find a suitable place to eat. Even though the sea ice on the edge of the beach has almost melted, they can't go back and forth in one day.

Adult male Adélie leaves the settlement and goes to sea with other similar species to fill their stomachs.

Going out to sea alternately day and night is also to raise their penguin chicks before winter comes. Like leopards, penguin chicks in the first few months of life are also dependent on their parents.

After watching the old father leave, there was an adult parent and cubs left in the nest.

The gravel-paved nest was not big, and Shi Qiao was forced to squeeze together with Eric, who didn't like her. In fact, the summer in Antarctica is not that cold and is much milder than other seasons of the year. As long as there is no strong wind, the fluffy lanugo hair on the little penguins is enough.

In Antarctic summer, the sun's high angle is the largest at noon, the days are very long, and the warmest time is around zero degrees.

It's just incomparable to summer in the interior, let alone the grasslands.

Shi Qiao is the one who is most afraid of the cold among the little penguin chicks. As soon as she arrived in Antarctica from the higher-temperature grasslands, she felt a little unbearable even in summer. Her body temperature was lower than the actual temperature, and she could only cling to her mother's belly.

There was another fluffy cub next to her right side, which kept her from shivering.

She had just experienced a game, won by luck, and had a full meal. Now Shi Qiao was feeling drowsy with her warm fur pressed against her.

Instead of letting herself fall asleep, she braced herself to look at the other Adélie penguins carefully.

The Adélie population is huge, especially during the season of raising chicks. Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Adélie penguins gather in the same exposed colony. At first glance, they all look exactly the same, and it is impossible to tell who is who.

Shi Qiao tried her best to shake her head to overcome her facial blindness towards penguins and started to distinguish one by one from the ones around her.

She had a bold idea in her mind.

Maybe Klein will appear in Antarctica like her?

Although there was no basis for this idea, it was just a whim of her own. She was just idle, so she might as well see if any penguins looked familiar to her.

It's a pity that the little penguin was so dazzled by the sight, she still felt that these Adélie all looked the same. The ones further away could not be seen clearly, and she could only see small black, white, and black dots.

The old mother looked at Thea who was not resting well, pecked the opponent's little head with her pointed beak, and took the initiative to use her flippers to retrieve the opponent from the edge of the nest.

Sooner or later, one of the two cubs will not survive this winter. The little one in front of her is likely to be the one that will be eliminated. Despite this, it does not want to show its attitude of giving up on each other so early. It is impartial to both little penguins, but they have to rely on themselves to compete for food.

Eric, who was next to Shi Qiao, also imitated his mother's example and nuzzled the little penguin's head, which was much more powerful.

Even if they are in the same den, they will not show mercy to their competitors.

Shi Qiao felt a pain in her head and her thoughts that were drifting further and further away were suddenly pulled back. Looking at the proud little brother beside her, she talked to him without hesitation.

Do you think she is considered a tyrant in the grassland, how can she remain silent and let this little thing bully her?

The little penguin was not a fast runner, but now her momentum was much higher. She withstood the opponent's attack and looked at the opportunity to snarl hard. There was still dark gray fluff on the retracted sharp beak.

He didn't expect that being bitten by his little sister would be so painful. Eric was stunned when he saw the lanugo hair that had come off his head from the other person's beak.

Why is the little penguin who was just chirping all of a sudden so energetic? 

This greatly threatens its future survival advantage.

Animals know how to compete from birth to obtain the conditions that are most beneficial to themselves. Of course, having a weak sibling is much better than having a strong sibling.

Especially in such a harsh environment.

The old mother pretended not to see the fight between the two cubs in the gravel nest. No matter how much the fight happened, the two cubs could not hurt each other. In the eyes of the parents, they were just noobs pecking each other.

Angered by the criticism, Eric retaliated fiercely. He also pulled a large lock of light gray fetal hair off the opponent's body and pushed the opponent directly out of the nest.

In the end, Shi Qiao still suffered from her thin body, could only fight back once or twice, and was beaten more frequently.

She did not climb back in from where she was, but cleverly made a half circle to the front where the old mother was separated from the other party and jumped in again.

The other Adélie cubs followed suit and pushed their brothers and sisters out of the den. Everyone hopes that their parents' love will be poured into them, especially in the wild where resources are not abundant.

Innocent malice is the most deadly. Penguin chicks at this age cannot yet leave the wings of their parents.

Because there are natural enemies out there that are a hundred times more dangerous than freezing and starving.

Antarctic Skua.

After the truce with Eric, Shi Qiao rested next to her old mother's flippers. Following a noisy cry, she opened her eyes and looked over there, only to see a commotion next to the same stone nest, and many cubs flapping their flippers in panic.

The other Adélie also stretched their heads instantly and looked at the place where the accident occurred.

The Antarctic skua hovering in the sky had just chosen its prey target. It spotted an Adélie cub that was not within the protection range of its parents, turned straight down, and swooped towards it.

The Antarctic skua is a rare bird in the human world, but it is a predator of penguins in Antarctica.

This raptor is larger than ordinary seagulls and extremely ferocious. It is not even afraid of adult penguins that are larger than itself and dare to steal children in front of their parents.

Shi Qiao looked at the arrogant Antarctic skuas and the Adélie parents who couldn't drive them away even though they spread their flippers. She watched a penguin chick being held by the neck by the big bird, and it flapped its wings and flew to an open area far away from the penguin colony.

In the blink of an eye, other Antarctic skuas also gathered around and quickly ate a penguin chick.

She was used to seeing fights in the grassland, but as a leopard, her status in the original world was not low, and she was not so easily eaten by the upper levels of the food chain.

Only then did Shi Qiao realize that penguins did not have the fighting power of wild beasts, and penguin chicks were even weaker among the weak.

Let alone one like her that is thinner than a normal cub.

Just seeing the scene of the same kind being eaten was not scary enough. What was even more terrifying was that she caught sight of the Antarctic skua as it flew over her head with a little penguin in its mouth.

Being stared at by the sharp gaze of the raptor, Shi Qiao, who now had no claws or fangs, suddenly stood up.

She knew this look all too well, the look of a predator.

As the weakest among the pups, it was no surprise that she became the target of future visits by Antarctic skuas.

Shi Qiao hurriedly shrank behind her mother. Her only support was the adult Adélie parents. However, if she became the next prey of the Antarctic skua, only an adult female penguin would be unable to do anything.

Other Adélie penguins squawked in the sky to represent their anger towards the Antarctic skua, and turned around to hide their chicks in their nests.

Antarctic skuas prefer small families with two chicks, which means that even if they rush to hunt, they will not risk their lives to drive away predators like penguin parents with only one chick.

When given a choice, Adélie parents would just give up the car to save the handsome one, sacrificing the weaker one.

It seems that the feeding time is based on competition, which is fair. In fact, they have a strong balance in their hearts, and they must protect their strong cubs.

Shi Qiao knew that doing so in Antarctica was the right thing to do, but that didn't mean she wanted to be a victim.

In the next few days, she was careful every day, either hiding behind her old mother or treating the two penguins, one big and one small, as biscuits, making the sandwich between the biscuits herself, resolutely acting as a dog-skin plaster, leaving no chance for the raptors.

After a few days of such strict precautions, the old father who went fishing at sea came back.

It's still a matter of who can run faster, and whoever is left behind will have no chance to eat.

If she doesn't want to become the primary target of every attack by the Antarctic skuas, she must make herself stronger. Shi Qiao will not give up every meal and will go all out to compete with Eric for the initiative to obtain food.

Perhaps because of the experience last time, Eric was much more vigilant this time than before. He didn't use those fancy tricks to trip up the opponent. He could see that as long as he ran after his old father steadily, the opponent would definitely not be able to outrun him.

Facts have proved that Shi Qiao really can't catch up.

It's not that she hasn't adapted to the little penguin's running style, but the rocks on the ground have become an obstacle for her.

Penguins with flat feet have to try their best to maintain balance when walking on flat ground, let alone a rocky road with protrusions here and there. The old father is more thoughtful than the old mother and specializes in running to places that are difficult to walk. Of course, she can't outrun Eric, who is stronger.

Seeing the intolerance of the female Adélie, the male as a father must help the other party make the best choice.

They don't have enough food to share equally between the two cubs, so it's time to choose the better one to provide resources.

Otherwise, the growth of both cubs will be delayed at the same time.

Feeling that she was being targeted, Shi Qiao could only watch as Eric won first place in the race, happily accepted the feeding from his father, and even looked at her provocatively after eating.

Shi Qiao wasn't angry at this level of provocation, and she couldn't blame the other penguins.

Weakness is weakness. The animal world does not have the five principles and four beauties of the human world to care for the weak. She must maintain her strength and wait for her mother to return from hunting next time.

Unexpectedly, her mother left so quickly this time. When she returned, she only saw an empty gravel nest.

It must have been that her partner had been away for several days this time, and the female Adélie was already hungry, so she left first without waiting for a proper handover.

Shi Qiao looked at the big one and the small one who was still feeding. The old father had not finished feeding him. It seemed that he had eaten a lot of krill and small fish during this trip to the sea. She felt regretful that they had not eaten any.

She felt unsafe in her nest. Other neighbors were taking care of their own chicks, and no penguins paid attention to her.

She looked up at the sky warily, and sure enough she saw a great skua circling around.

Shi Qiao made a quick decision and ran to his old father.

She had just come back in a hurry, thinking that a female Adélie was waiting in the nest, but now the goose nest was empty, and she was the only one, a weak goose, that stood out so much that it was difficult for natural enemies not to notice.

Seeing the Antarctic Skua getting closer and closer to the ground, all the Adélie penguins formed a group and formed a group to drive each other away.

The way back just now was already blocked by other Adélies. Shi Qiao became anxious, flapping her flippers and jumping up to look for the male Adélie. Even if she jumped up at her height, she could only reach the chests of other adult penguins, and she couldn't see where the parent she was looking for was.

Seeing that she was about to fall into crisis, Shi Qiao simply ran in the other direction.

There was only a road over there, and there were some taller adult Adélie shouting, looking very brave.

The little penguin had never run so fast when grabbing food. That direction was downhill. She was like a stuffed penguin doll, humming and bumping down the road.

The more panicked she was, the more likely she was to make mistakes. Shi Qiao tripped over a sharp stone and fell to the ground, rolling directly down the slope.

There are also some broken eggshells at the bottom of the slope. They are penguin eggs that accidentally rolled down from above. They are already broken and have been eaten clean by Antarctic skuas.

Shi Qiao got up awkwardly from the ground, found a gravel nest, and crawled in. She pretended that she was the half-sibling of the other cubs, and squeezed in behind their parents with them.

Two adult Adélie combined can make Antarctic skuas think carefully about the probability of success.

After circling for a while, it lost the specific location of the little penguin just now, and finally randomly picked another little penguin for today's dinner.

After Shi Qiao watched her natural enemy fly away, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Surviving a catastrophe will bring good luck. She patted her chest with her flippers, crawled out of the nest of other cubs, and prepared to go back to meet her parents.

As a result, when she looked up again, she saw the dark Adélie on the uphill slope, and her eyelids twitched unconsciously.

Where is this? Did she run so far just now?

It's not that she ran far, it's that she rolled down a long distance from the slope. Just a moment ago, she was like a headless fly rushing into other penguins' homes to seek shelter, and she was already far away from her original location.

Shi Qiao was dumbfounded.

How can this be done?

She was a bit face-blind and couldn't distinguish the faces of these Adélie. There were tens of thousands of penguins next to each other. She had to find out when to find her own pebble nest!

Penguins do not have as powerful a search ability and sense of smell as leopards, so Shi Qiao could only walk upwards.

There were countless combinations of single fathers and cubs. She went over one by one and saw that each one looked like an old father and a little brother. Shi Qiao became more and more confused as she walked, and could not find her home the further she walked.

She thought.

After all, she seemed to have become the first little penguin to escape natural enemies on her own but became an orphan as a result.