It was at that moment she convinced herself to follow her heart, be passionate and stay true to who she really is. She got down to planning her life.
Zheng then followed her interest and got internships as a stage show host, social media editor and photographer. Those positions rendered her various working skills-and helped her better understand herself. "I found myself set against being confined to a cubicle, but longing for a cause that created value for myself," she says.
However, she found herself in the grip of anxiety as graduation approached. She didn't want to be forced to work, but she didn't have money to see the world. "It was a torment, with one foot on campus and the other stepping into the world of work. I even dreamed of myself as a patient in serious condition lying in an intensive care unit," she recalls.
She asked herself what she'd like to leave in this world if she had only one year left. Things then came into focus. She decided to stick to what she had always wanted-to travel, and start a business out of it.
"The initial idea was to develop a travel documentary," she says.
Zheng pulled an all-nighter and developed a relatively crude business proposal that only had a basic outline of how it would make a profit, such as advertising, and presented it to one of her bosses from a previous internship, although she knew "chances were slim" for its success.
To her surprise, the boss offered the first angel investment of her life-150,000 yuan ($23,203). "Perhaps he had known me from my internship before or he was moved by my attempt to hold onto my dream," she says.
She wasted no time setting up a studio and putting together a team of designers and photographers. It didn't take long before she found talent from her adventurous friends and embarked on her first journey to a cave dwelling in the north of Shaanxi province for Mid-Autumn Festival in 2018.
She chose the place out of her fascination for the Loess Plateau and the cave dwellings there. "To me, it represents tradition, distinctive lifestyle and distance from the city," Zheng says.
