America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 64: The Ring Stage
The Ford drove around the Clayton community, and the black traffickers that were once seen everywhere disappeared without a trace, as if they were garbage that had been cleared out.

Martin drove into the community and stopped in front of Carter's house. Lily, Hall and Harris, who were squeezed in the back seat, couldn't wait to get out of the car and ran towards the door.

Diagonally opposite, Mr. Wood came wandering over.

Elena and Martin opened the trunk and called the three people to come over to move the luggage.

Mr. Wood came over and asked, "Have a good trip?"

"Very happy." Lily smiled and walked over to Mr. Wood and handed him a wolf tooth keychain: "Mr. Wood, I brought you a gift."

Mr. Wood was surprised: "This seems to be from the Great Smoky Mountains."

Martin continued, "I didn't realize until I left Atlanta that souvenirs made in Atlanta are sold everywhere."

Mr. Wood laughed cheerfully.

Martin asked, "The black traffickers disappeared?"

"It seems that the DEA raided a group of them, and the rest ran away." Mr. Wood was quite relieved: "Our neighborhood defense alliance was a great success, and Clayton has returned to its previous order."

Elena didn't ask for much: "Finally, I can get back to the way I was."

Martin asked Harris and Hall to take the luggage back to the house.

Elena and Lily spoke to Mr. Wood and returned with the rest of the luggage.

Martin suggested again: "We can move to a better community."

"We grew up here. Now that those black guys are gone, everything is back to normal." Elena didn't want to leave: "These are all familiar neighbors. Although they are sometimes bad, they are all good people in the community. Besides, the money should be used in the most important places. Harris is about to go to college."

She tried her best not to swear: "Without enough money and decent jobs, we will only be discriminated against if we move to other communities."

“I got a part-time job tutoring elementary school students at the planetarium,” Harris said.

Lily was serious for once: "I deliver newspapers every morning."

Hall said: "The churchyard is looking for people to dig graves, and I'm good at it."

Elena went over and punched him on the head: "You are responsible for watching the house!"

Martin thought for a while and said to Harris, "You can learn more about the stars in the planetarium and ask carefully whether it is difficult to set up a for-profit astronomy association."

Harris nodded: "I will ask clearly."

Elena said at this time: "Your accent sounds really weird now."

Martin said: "I started late in learning the Hollywood accent, so I just had to keep practicing it every day."

Lily suddenly interrupted: "He wants to be a big star!"

Both fists stopped in front of Lily's face at the same time, and Lily lowered her head in grievance.

Martin, who had been using intimidation as the main method, retracted his fist, took out the Ford car key, and stuffed it into Elena’s hands: “This car is for you, it will be convenient for commuting to and from get off work.”

Then he turned around and saw the grievance on Lily's face disappearing, her mouth slightly open, as if she wanted to speak.

He slapped Lily on the face: "Shut up!"

Elena asked, "What about you?"

Martin took out another car key: "I recently helped someone attract an investment, this is the bonus." He took the initiative to change the subject: "Who wants to go out? I'm going to buy a searchlight."

Elena said, "I'll go with you."

Martin discovered that Old Black was the real threat, especially when he wore black clothes at night, he was simply amazing.

He wanted to install a searchlight outside the house to break Lao Hei's invisibility technique.

Just after noon, Elena drove the Ford to the bar.

Martin first went to the Freedom Club to collect his salary for the past two weeks, and then went to Gray Films, found Kelly's assistant Ella, gave her a small gift, and asked her to help write a social investigation report.

It is not easy to get the salary from the Freedom Society. Social investigators have to submit a formal report every three weeks.

Director Benjamin learned that Martin was coming and called him to invite him to his office. "My boss informed me this morning that he decided to give the green light to the project and appointed you as the male lead." It was not difficult for Benjamin to analyze from this information that Martin had convinced his boss.

He said with emotion: "I finally see hope for my long-cherished wish."

Martin said nicely: "I am where I am today thanks to your support, Director. Without that impressive circus, I would not have this opportunity."

Benjamin realized Martin's importance to his boss and no longer regarded him as a mere actor. He said, "Don't worry, I will tailor a more outstanding play for you this time."

For some reason, Martin suddenly felt cold.

But I couldn’t give up halfway since I had worked so hard to make this happen. I had to finish the filming no matter what.

Thinking about the script, he gradually came up with some ideas as to whether the male lead must stand out.

Benjamin specifically reminded: "You've worked in the gigolo club for so long, you should be familiar with striptease, right?"

Martin realized why he was so cold and said, "I'm a bartender."

Benjamin said, "Prepare in advance and practice."

Martin sighed inwardly. After going around in such a big circle, he still had to go on the circular stage.

Why bother? When you go to Los Angeles in the future, won’t you take a trip to the Sacred Valley?

Martin didn't want this to happen, so he decided to use his best ability and said, "Director, you wrote an ugly guy for the role of the boss of the gigolo club."

Benjamin simply said: "There must be green leaves around the red flower, and the boss is the green leaf. Only with the foil, the audience will think that the male dancers are handsome."

Martin said, “I have a friend who would be perfect for this role.”

Benjamin knew that Martin was a temporary actor: "The boss has a lot of lines."

Martin was talking about Robert, of course: "His acting skills are basically passable, and his lines are fine."

“Sure.” Benjamin agreed immediately: “Wait for the crew to send out a notice and have him audition directly. As long as his basic acting skills are fine, I’ll give him the green light.”

He felt no burden in doing this favor, as it did not require him to spend any of his own resources. "Which theater troupe are you a member of?"

Martin nodded. "Marietta Community Theater." He boasted, "The most professional background artist team in Atlanta. They have collaborated with the company on many late-night shows."

Benjamin said directly: “You are responsible for the contact.”

The two chatted about the male protagonist for a while, then Martin said goodbye and left, and met Andrew in the company lobby.

Andrew was beaming with joy: "I just heard from Ella that you will also serve as the production manager of this play?"

Martin told the truth: "It's just a nominal position."

Andrew looked around and lowered his voice: "Lynn was dragged down by Adam Smith and was taken away by the DEA last week. The boss has decided to fire him."

Martin responded: "Congratulations, casting director."

Andrew had done a lot for Martin at the time, and he could roughly guess that Martin had gotten rid of Adam Smith, and he also benefited from it, so he raised his fist and said, "It should be congratulations to us."

Martin bumped fists with him. “I’ll have Jerome contact you.”

Andrew said, "No problem, he can call me anytime."

After making sure that there would be no unexpected events in the project, Martin called the team leader Jerome, and then made an appointment to meet with Robert. He handed Robert the role script given by Benjamin.

"What do you mean?" Robert looked at the role script and suddenly remembered that this guy and that pervert frequently discussed backdoors during dinner: "Martin, I'm not interested in men!"

Martin was helpless: "Man, I'm not interested in men! I'm the leading actor in this play. If you're not watching me, I'm worried that the leading actor will be snatched away by someone else."

Robert defended himself: "I really didn't do anything, it was just a coincidence."

"I understand." Martin was too lazy to say more: "This role has at least 20 lines. Go back and prepare well. If you mess up the audition, I will send you to Bruce. Bruce is the one who likes to use the back door."

The next day, Dave, representing Grey Pictures, reached an agreement with Sofia and Vincent, and the project of "Zombie Gigolo" was officially launched.

(End of this chapter)