The birthday banquet lasted until eleven at night.
The guests were divided into two groups: one group drank wildly, ending up crawling on the floor, while the other group was more sober and gathered around a table to play Werewolf.
Whether by coincidence or not, Cen Yemeng was always assigned the role of the werewolf. She would signal to Jiang Ye, who understood her intentions and tried his best to defend her, colluding to cheat.
Isabelle was thoroughly drunk, sitting in a corner, shaking her head incessantly and shouting for the ship to stop.
The first to leave was Huan Yunhe. After just two drinks, he claimed to be unable to hold his liquor and retreated early.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng were the last to leave. They saw off all the guests, then attended to Isabelle, who vomited for a long time. They gave her hangover soup and only left after she had sobered up.
Both husband and wife were exhausted and collapsed onto their bed to sleep soundly upon returning home.
The next morning, Jiang Ye woke up to a new message on his phone.
It was an e-book file sent by Huan Yunhe.
Jiang Ye had expected a thin booklet, similar to a user manual or product introduction.
Instead, it was a thick, theoretical book, complete with diagrams, tables, and citations, spanning over six hundred pages.
As he didn't have much work at hand, Jiang Ye immediately began studying the book.
From seven in the morning until almost eleven at night, he read almost non-stop.
For a continuous week, he reread the book repeatedly, internalizing its content. He also followed the book's extension prompts, searching for and studying a lot of related materials.
It felt like preparing for the college entrance examination.
After a week, Jiang Ye had gained considerable knowledge about artificial star systems, at least enough to be a qualified customer.
He immediately downloaded a simulation software and began designing his own star system.
First, he focused on the central star.
The Sun was too miniature; it could not support enough planets, and the development space for the star system was very limited.
Jiang Ye used AI to calculate and decided to have a star 37 times larger than the Sun, with an age of around three billion years.
Huan Yunhe, upon receiving Jiang Ye's message, quoted a price of 170 trillion.
This was already a very favorable price and could not be lowered further, as Huan Yunhe would incur a loss.
With the star decided, the next step was the planets.
After precise calculations by the program, it was possible to set up three habitable planet orbits: near, middle, and far.
Different orbits could be paired with different atmospheric densities, atmospheric compositions, planet sizes, and planetary compositions to achieve the same habitable temperature.
Beyond these three orbits, it was difficult to achieve habitability; planets would be either too hot or too cold.
Because the star was large enough, each orbit could accommodate three planets of equal mass, placed at equal distances, so their gravitational forces would not interfere with each other.
Three orbits—near, middle, and far—each with three planets, totaling nine planets.
To improve the environment of each planet, Jiang Ye also planned to place one or two large moons around each planet, with the large moons also potentially orbiting smaller moons.
Ideally, these moons would have abundant mineral resources that could be mined to supply the planets.
Jiang Ye sent the constructed simulated star system to Huan Yunhe.
Huan Yunhe quickly sent back a lengthy message:
"The star is easy to confirm, at the price of 170 trillion."
"The planets are difficult to secure. Most planets within the Milky Way are already reserved. However, with recent outward expansion, we've been contacting some exoplanets. It also depends on luck. I'll keep an eye out for you. If suitable planets are found, I'll notify you immediately. The price for each planet is estimated to be no less than a hundred trillion."
"I suggest you first submit the application to get the artificial star system approved and start with a star. Once the star is in place, you'll need to prepare sufficient cash. When I encounter suitable planets, I'll inform you. If you're satisfied, you can purchase them immediately, one by one, to gradually complete your star system."
"Buying all the planets at once is unrealistic. This is the current market situation; all planets are in high demand. Even the most inferior asteroids and white dwarfs have many buyers, driving up prices day by day. I don't know what they're after."
Upon receiving Huan Yunhe's message, Jiang Ye began to gather funds.
He issued orders to the various planets to contribute all their savings, ensuring the planets' basic operations and development were maintained.
Jiang Ye Star was the first to prepare the funds, totaling eighteen trillion.
Birong Star followed, reporting that it could contribute thirty-two trillion.
Then came the ministers of Exile Star, who submitted a report to Cen Yemeng, willing to contribute ten trillion. Any more was not feasible, as Exile Star still needed to develop, and the scars of war had not fully healed; too much blood could not be drawn.
Meteorite Star could only contribute two trillion, which was quite meager.
In total, 62 trillion.
This was far from the initial target of 170 trillion!
Jiang Ye was troubled. He had initially thought buying an entire star system would be difficult, but he hadn't expected to struggle to afford even a single star.
"Am I really this poor?"
Jiang Ye requested detailed financial reports from all the major planets and personally reviewed them, starting to cut costs.
The standard for cutting costs was simple.
The money needed by the planets for essential expenses, such as military spending, urban construction funds, and education and research funds, would not be touched.
These planets were the home bases; they couldn't be left in a dire state just to acquire new planets.
However, Jiang Ye resolutely cut out any unnecessary expenditures.
After two weeks of rigorous scrutiny, Jiang Ye indeed managed to cut a significant amount.
For instance, he reduced the reserved activity funds for all departments and organizations for the next four years directly to two years.
Having two years' worth of reserves was sufficient; why hoard so much money?
He also minimized extravagant planet celebrations to the lowest possible standard.
Furthermore, he reviewed the current status of various industries and cut subsidies for industries that had already recovered or were developing rapidly. Subsidies for industries that had been supported for many years but still couldn't stand on their own were also terminated. Since they couldn't be saved, it was better to pull the plug.
Meteorite Star's military budget still had a considerable two trillion allocated, mostly for purchasing new equipment.
Jiang Ye slashed it down to three hundred billion. What need did a pastoral planet have for so much equipment? The combat power of the other three planets was sufficient. Were the troops stationed on Meteorite Star going to acquire a large quantity of equipment only to let it gather dust in warehouses?
By continuously cutting expenses from all angles, Jiang Ye's various maneuvers managed to increase the available funds from 62 trillion to a staggering 100 trillion.
Jiang Ye could understand why this happened.
His subordinates likely wanted to retain more money for their own use.
Which department or industry wouldn't want to live more comfortably?
However, for the sake of the greater good, Jiang Ye had to force everyone to make sacrifices.
One hundred trillion was still not enough to purchase the star.
Jiang Ye attempted to contact the leaders of other planets, hoping to borrow some money to meet the target.
After several days of phone calls, most planet leaders were willing to lend money.
However, they all had conditions.
The conditions were invariably to charge interest or to gain some power over the artificial star system.
Jiang Ye was frustrated. They were all planet leaders, old foxes who had lived for who knows how many years. Who would willingly suffer a loss? Who would lend money without seeking benefits?