The main jobs of the scammers were two: supplying electricity and splashing water.
The power consumption of the scamming machines was astonishing; even an eco-friendly model consumed tens of kilowatt-hours per hour. Criminal syndicates busted by the police often had multiple scamming machines, draining hundreds or thousands of kilowatt-hours hourly. To prevent the electricity meter from spinning too fast and alerting the police, the scammers employed various methods.
A common tactic was renting an entire residential building, which allowed them to distribute the power drain across dozens of households, making the overall consumption data appear less suspicious.
Syndicates in remote mountain villages, not relying on the planet's power grid, were self-sufficient. They powered their operations using stolen electric vehicle batteries, erected solar panels on mountaintops to generate their own electricity, or even used old-fashioned diesel generators. In the desolate mountains, the chugging sound of diesel generators continued throughout the night.
As for splashing water, it was to cool down the scamming machines.
These scamming machines were assembled in small factories and workshops on alien planets using electronic waste and cheap parts. The equipment was extremely poor; when activated, it heated up like a furnace. If left unattended, the hundreds of mobile phones within each scamming machine would rapidly melt, emitting crackling electrical sparks and making sounds like a New Year's celebration. To cool them down, scammers had to pour water bucket by bucket onto the machines or douse them repeatedly with hoses.
The scorching hot machines constantly evaporated the water from their casings, turning the entire room into a sauna. Warm water flowed on the floor, and steam filled the air. The scammers, stripped to their waists, were as red as steamed crabs, sweating profusely. The working conditions were extremely harsh.
Due to the poor quality of the machines, electrocution accidents even occurred.
An electric scamming syndicate of six people hid in a mountain village hut, constantly splashing water to cool their scamming machines. Half an hour after powering up, before they could scam any money, the machine leaked electricity, killing all six scammers on the spot. When the police surveyed the scene, they marveled at how quickly retribution had arrived.
Jiang Ye was satisfied with the public opinion development over the past month. Regardless of whether the news was positive or negative, the concept of tripling average lifespan had been widely publicized, becoming almost common knowledge.
On Jiang Ye Star, Bi Rong Star, and the Exile Star, from eighty-year-old elders to eight-year-old children, everyone knew about the concept of tripling lifespan.
However, the time was still not ripe.
Jiang Ye discussed with Dai Zhixing over the phone when to initiate the average lifespan reform. Their judgment was consistent: although the concept was currently popular, it was still too early. It needed at least another six months of brewing. The opportune moment for officially launching the average lifespan reform would be when people became accustomed to it, lost their initial interest, and even grew a bit tired of it.
This timing was not based on Jiang Ye and Dai Zhixing's calculations or guesswork, but on existing theories of crowd psychology and specific calculations derived from population and network data from the three planets. Major planets in the Galactic Empire, when initiating social reforms of varying degrees, would prepare the public opinion field in advance, and very complete calculation standards were already in place.
Soon, Isabel's new book went on sale.
The paperback cover's main color was a prominent and grand red. Priced at 68 yuan, the actual selling price was around 30 yuan, making it a relatively inexpensive novel, especially considering its over six hundred pages, making it thicker than two or three other novels.
The hardcover edition was also red but featured gilded edges, thicker paper, and genuine calfskin binding. It came with a host of gifts, including character posters, bookplates, digital book certificates, silver bookmarks, and a complimentary small reading notebook. Priced at 666 yuan, its actual selling price matched the listed price.
The initial print run for the paperback was five hundred thousand copies, and for the hardcover, five thousand copies, considered conservative figures. The initial print runs for ordinary second or third-rate authors were around several hundred thousand copies. Only those with some fame could print over a million copies.
The reactions from various bookstores also differed.
Some bookstores intuitively felt the book would sell well and dedicated a prominent cabinet on the first day, filling it with stacks of the red books.
Other bookstores, however, felt it would be another slow-moving book and placed only a few copies in a corner.
On the first day of sales, Isabel's novel sold 344 copies.
The sales were dismal.
Many of these 344 copies were bought by acquaintances. For instance, Jiang Ye bought six hardcover copies and told his wife over the phone that he had bought a few extra to place in their houses on various planets. His wife, Cen Yemeng, chuckled and said she had also bought several copies.
On the second day of sales, 178 copies were sold.
Without the support of acquaintances, the remaining sales were genuine.
On the third day, 169 copies.
On the fourth day, 211 copies.
On the fifth day, 218 copies.
Jiang Ye started to get anxious; these sales were terrible!
At this rate, when would they ever finish selling?
With poor sales, he went online to check book reviews.
There were no ratings on major book review sites yet because too few people had reviewed it. There were only a handful of short comments, all very positive, but they seemed like paid endorsements from the publisher.
After much deliberation, Jiang Ye decided to call Isabel.
"Hello? What is it?" Isabel answered.
"Your book... the sales have been poor these past few days. Is the promotion insufficient?" Jiang Ye asked. "Do you need me to help promote it? For example, I could post an update on social media saying I'm currently reading this book."
"Stay calm, no need to panic," Isabel's tone was very composed. "New books are always like this when they first enter the market. If the initial readers find it good, it will build word-of-mouth, and sales will expand."
"You really don't need any promotion?" Jiang Ye asked. "Sometimes, even good wine needs no bush, but a little promotion can accelerate your book's explosion in popularity."
"No, no, I just want to see how far my book can go purely through the market and readers, with almost no promotion," Isabel said. "I don't mind waiting a few more months. If it really doesn't sell, I'll accept it."
Jiang Ye didn't press further.
Having known Old Yi for so many years, he understood her personality to some extent.
On the surface, she appeared lazy, but inwardly, she possessed a stubborn streak.
In the following days, sales remained dismal, around one to two hundred copies per day.
Many bookstores that had initially placed Isabel's new book in prominent positions had lost confidence and replaced it with other bestsellers, moving Isabel's new book to inconspicuous corners.
On the tenth day of sales, Isabel's new book's sales suddenly increased tenfold, reaching 2,588 copies!
Jiang Ye was startled and called the publisher to inquire why so many copies had suddenly sold.
The publisher sent Jiang Ye a video link.
A popular book reviewer had posted a video the previous day introducing Isabel's new book.
This reviewer had over a million followers, mostly bookworms, and possessed strong influence.
Out of curiosity, Jiang Ye clicked on the video and watched it in his office.