Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Liu Dayong turned over and lay on his side. It was another scorching night, and he was covered in sweat, unable to fall asleep.

His phone vibrated briefly, indicating a text message had arrived. He reached for it, and the broken mattress creaked ominously.

One night more than a year ago, Liu Dayong collapsed the mattress while he was working hard on Li Juan at the horizontal end of the mattress.

Li Juan worked in a textile factory and was a petite woman, but that spring Liu Dayong's weight exceeded 210 jin (approximately 145 kg).

That night, when they discovered that the mattress was designed to withstand vertical movements rather than lateral ones, the room was pitch black. Li Juan was trapped under Liu Dayong's body, suffering a broken collarbone. Liu Dayong had no choice but to drive Li Juan to the emergency room of a private hospital in the city.

Li Juan was furious. She yelled and threatened to tell Wang Zhi about it.

Wang Zhi is Li Juan's husband and Liu Dayong's best friend.

At the time, Wang Zhi weighed 220 jin (approximately 160 kg) and was known for his fiery temper.

Liu Dayong laughed so hard he could hardly breathe. From then on, every time he stepped into that textile factory, Li Juan would be furious.

This made him feel incredibly sad, because although what happened that night was a memory he cherished very much.

That was also the last time he slept with a woman.

Liu Dayong took a breath and checked his phone. The text message was from an unknown number: 1066 50xx.

He knew immediately upon seeing the number that it was spam, either a scam or a dead end. But he opened it anyway, simply because he couldn't stand the constant stream of unread text messages on his phone.

A passage of text came into view:

Li Wei and I are good friends, and we've both liked Zhang Xiaoli for a long time.

It happened on the night I graduated from university.

Li Wei was completely drunk in the next private room, clutching the microphone and howling out a song called "Brothers".

I helped Zhang Xiaoli to her room upstairs in the hotel to rest. Her hands were very cold, and her fingertips trembled slightly in my palm.

In the elevator mirror, her eyes were slightly red, and her lipstick was smudged. That kind of broken beauty made my mind go blank.

The moment the door closed, everything spiraled out of control.

The message ends here.

Liu Dayong's breathing became deep and long, and he felt unbearably hot.

Now thirty-eight years old, he has collected about one hundred old clothes, but after long-term frequent use, those clothes have long lost their original flavor.

At that moment, another text message popped up:

[Bluebird Story Collection] The Dilemma of Friendship and Love. When best friends turn against each other, how will this dangerous game that began with a love triangle end? Reply Y to unlock all the exciting content, only 10 yuan/month. Reply T to unsubscribe.

Liu Dayong swallowed.

Ten yuan is enough for him to smoke all day and eat a slightly better boxed meal.

At this moment, however, he was saved when he had nowhere to vent his frustrations.

Liu Dayong typed "Y" in the typing bar and clicked send.

Two new text messages arrived shortly afterward:

Subscription successful! Thank you for choosing [Bluebird Story Collection]. You have activated your monthly unlimited reading service. We will continue to push the complete content of "The Door My Brother Closed" and more wonderful short stories to you. You can also visit the mobile website qxxxx.xx at any time (mobile users click to access directly), log in with this mobile number, and enjoy unlimited reading of all works on the site.

The second item is new content that has been unlocked, filled with vivid descriptions.

Liu Dayong couldn't help but let his imagination run wild, his blood boiling.

He eagerly got up and leaned back against the headboard.

Sweat kept seeping from his skin. The light from the phone screen shone on his oily face.

The mattress started creaking again, then collapsed to the floor with a thud.

......

"Brother Fei, it's still rising!" Wen Jie shouted, "It's over 0.5%. If this conversion rate continues..."

Han Fei nodded, looking at the screen.

The dial displays:

Registered users: 42

Paid subscription: 31

Conversion rate: 0.62%

It is 3:05 a.m., and the streets, buildings, and houses outside are shrouded in the silence of the night.

However, the numbers on the dial continued to flash.

Zhang Ruiyi brought over two cups of hot water and placed them on the table.

"It's broken 1%, Fei-ge! It's broken 1%!" Wen Jie jumped up from his chair and pointed at the screen.

Registered users: 75

Paid subscription: 68

Conversion rate: 1.36%

Han Fei stared intently at the screen for a long while, then closed his eyes, a surge of exhilarating, tingling satisfaction rising in his heart.

1.36%.

This means that more than one in every 100 people who receive the text message chooses to pay.

This number may seem insignificant thirteen years from now, but in 2004, when users had little habit of paying for digital content, it was a miracle.

More importantly, this proves the model is viable. It proves that those seemingly crude, melodramatic, and lowbrow stories can indeed capture people's hearts and make them willing to spend money.

"Let's look at the user behavior data," Han Fei said, trying to speak clearly.

Wen Jie pulled up a detailed report: "Among subscribers, 72% are male and 28% are female. Age... we can't determine that precisely right now, but based on the distribution of phone number segments, they are mainly concentrated in the 25-40 age range. Geographically, users in first-tier cities account for 35%, and those in second- and third-tier cities and below account for 65%."

"Why is this happening?" Zhang Ruiyi asked.

"This is the lower-tier market," Han Fei said, "which is also the result I initially envisioned."

"And there's something even more impressive," Wen Jie continued, "average reading time! Data from the Qingniao Reading website shows that the average person spends 41 minutes reading online. They're really reading!"

Han Fei nodded slowly and paced back and forth in the room.

A few minutes later, he stretched and sat down in his chair to wait quietly. The fatigue from working non-stop for two days and two nights had long been replaced by the excitement of anticipation.

At 4:32 AM, the numbers on the dial remained fixed at:

Registered users: 289

Paid subscription: 215

Conversion rate: 4.3%

"The testing phase can be concluded," Han Fei said, lighting a cigarette. "The conversion rate has stabilized at over 4%, which has far exceeded expectations."

"So what should we do next...?" Wen Jie asked.

"We'll push all of them," Han Fei said. "We'll use all 50 numbers we have to push them, increasing the number of novels pushed to 50. We'll observe the market acceptance of different genres and find out the most popular hit types."

"Okay!" Wen Jie immediately started the operation. "However, with our current server, we need to do it in batches. It will take about half an hour to push everything out."

Han Fei glanced at his watch and walked to the window.

Today. In a few hours, the answer will be revealed.

Han Fei inhaled the smoke deeply into his lungs, feeling how the nicotine mixed with fresh air invigorated his body.

This was the first time in a long time that he thought cigarettes tasted good.