America 1982-Chapter 267 - 5: Martin with the Good Eye
On the way to the airport, Sophia sat in the backseat of the Cadillac and said to Tommy, who was discussing Black pop culture with Martin, "Raul and Michelle privately asked me why you didn’t have a separate conversation with them and just let them start the preliminary work. They’re a bit uneasy."
"It’s nothing," Tommy countered, "The main reason is Susan called me for a meeting, and the business activities and rights production and sales at BT Television are things we only need to consider later on. The most important thing at the beginning is only Rick’s show planning concept. Besides, Rick needs to think it over since he hasn’t done this line of work before and even needs to get used to the shock that those programs might bring him. I can understand that, after all, he went straight to producing low-budget films for ’Vivid Colors’ right after graduating from the University of Southern California. But out of the four, I like Rick the most. He’s very pure."
Sophia shrugged, "I thought you’d like Sean Lei better, considering how long you talked with him."
"Sean is mediocre, not good or bad, a bit cunning, likes to test the waters and such. I can only evaluate him after seeing his later work," Tommy answered, looking at Sophia.
"Guess what attracted me the most about Rick when Mark introduced him to me?" Tommy asked.
"A professional, a University of Southern California film production major, and young enough?" Sophia guessed, organizing the itinerary in her hand.
"No, because if that guy doesn’t have the capacity to sit firmly in the position of VP of program planning at BT Television, we could still bring him into BT Film Production Company as a producer. The guy has a knack for controlling costs. You and Mark only noticed his glamorous side, I noticed the crappiest low-budget film in his career. It only had one male and one female lead, ran for forty minutes, and sold 730 copies, 730 copies, and he actually managed to make a profit. What I mean is, even if he didn’t rent a location and just carried a camera to have two homeless people perform obscene acts on the street for two burgers, he’d have to pay a fine, and including other labor costs, how could that possibly be profitable? Impossible. At that time, I suspected his resume was fake." Tommy spoke with excitement about something he found extraordinarily rare and told Sophia:
"Profitable, not even just breaking even. I had Mark double-check how that guy could possibly sell only 730 copies and still make money. You can’t even imagine; it was an absolutely brilliant idea that made me slam my hand down in amazement after our talk. That’s why I’m convinced that whatever programs he designs and produces will definitely be eye-catching."
"Boss, you must be a master storyteller, keeping us on tenterhooks like a true master. I’m dying of curiosity here in the front seat. Just tell me directly how he managed to sell it, please..." The Black bodyguard Martin, sitting in the front passenger seat, couldn’t help but interject with questions, but before he could finish, a crisp electric shock was heard. With a scream of "ah~" Martin’s voice went silent, and he slumped over in the passenger seat, closing his eyes and not moving anymore.
"Mr. Page, what did you do?" Sophia, seeing Page at the wheel holding an electric baton as if by magic, asked in shock, "Why did you attack Martin? Stop the car right now, help me check on Martin and take him to the closest hospital!"
"No need to worry, Miss O’Connor, this is a low-powered women’s self-defense electric shocker. I was just teaching him how to be a silent bodyguard, not to interrupt when the boss is talking, to cultivate his professional habits. And I’m also letting him know that two paychecks aren’t easy to earn," Page said, driving calmly.
Tommy wasn’t concerned about other things, but hearing about two paychecks, he was puzzled, "What two paychecks? He’s not even a formal employee of the television station, at most an outsourced worker from Mark’s company. Why would he get two paychecks? What did you feed him to make him have these unrealistic delusions?"
"He mentioned he’s working as your bodyguard and also needs to design hairstyles for the television station staff. Two jobs, so he gets two paychecks," Page said, glancing at Martin leaning on the passenger seat, clearly not dead, his eyelids slightly trembling.
Hearing Martin wanted a double salary, Tommy decisively spoke up, "Mr. Page, is your stun baton still charged? Next time he gets curious about salary issues, don’t hesitate, turn it up to the maximum. If he can withstand it, I’d allow you to buy a more powerful electric shocker; the company will reimburse the cost."
"Tommy~this isn’t a joke, Mr. Page is deliberately hurting someone!" Sophia got up from the back seat, leaned forward, trying to check on Martin’s condition.
"Don’t worry, Sophia, if Martin got killed by this electric shock stick that can’t even kill a stray cat, we just saved on two paychecks, and if he’s alive, I might consider paying him an extra barber’s salary, this..."
"I’m still alive, Mr. Hawk, and thank you for saying you’d pay me double my salary." Martin straightened up in the passenger seat, turned his head to look at Tommy and Sophia, and with a white-toothed grin bragged, "Mr. Page said you were reluctant to pay me, but the fact that you pay that black guy a weekly salary of two thousand shows you’re not a stingy person."
"Hand me that electric shock stick, Mr. Page." As Tommy said this with a gentle smile to Martin, he reached out to Page, "I want to send Martin flying to heaven~ Although that thing can’t kill a stray cat, I think it can definitely kill Martin."
Martin raised his hands dramatically, "Boss, so how exactly did that guy with red curls make money? Before I get electrocuted to death by you, can you finish telling me the whole story?"
"We mailed it to the numerous cults in the United States, telling them it’s a church film that talks about the story of Adam and Eve meeting, the male and female leads are both devout believers, solely aiming to recreate the scenes from the Bible in their hearts, not an adult film, but a pure art. Whether those churches really believed his crap or not, we still sold over seven hundred sets at a high price. Most of them were probably bought by churches to hoodwink their female congregants," Tommy revealed the answer.
Martin clearly didn’t grasp it immediately; after listening to Tommy, he zoned out for a few seconds with a strange expression before asking uncertainly, "Are you saying, that curly-haired kid sold those kinds of films to churches? And for more than he would to ordinary people? White people are total jerks, that’s a desecration! He should be thankful he’s not black, we black people care a lot about faith, to be honest, if he pulled that off in a Miami black community, even if God was merciful and didn’t smite him with fire for being a vile heretic, we’d burn him ourselves."
"By the way, Martin, Rick heard you were a barber and thought about having you as a TV star in a show," Tommy said, smiling at Martin’s angry reaction.
"Me?" Martin looked at Tommy, "Me? Boss, are you saying that my third paycheck is already within reach? After being a bodyguard and barber, I’m going to be a TV star too? Appear on TV?"
Tommy nodded, "If Rick doesn’t get burned by God, yes, it’s possible."
"Next time he’s selling adult films to churches, I’d be willing to help him deliver them in person, who cares, God obviously didn’t plan to bless me to become a star," Martin quickly changes his tune, "So what should I do?"
Tommy leaned in, lowering his voice to Martin and said each word deliberately, "My advice to you is to give up collecting your pay for being a bodyguard and a barber, and wait to become a surprisingly wealthy TV star."
"Don’t believe him, Martin, he just wants to skimp on your salary," as someone with experience, Sophia said with a laugh from the side.
With a pair of naïve eyes, Martin glared, looking from Sophia to Tommy, "I choose to trust you, boss. Ever since I knew you could pay that black dude two thousand a week and have him do nothing, I’ve known you’re a good man worth trusting."
Sophia sighed, "You have such a good eye, Martin. No wonder you found such a bizarre job."
