Before David Bolton could answer, this young team leader turned to Henry Clark and said, “You should take down my number too, XXXXXX. If there’s a suitable role, I’ll let you know as well.”

“Philip Thompson, are you guys short on people too?” David Bolton gave this young team leader a punch, as if the two of them had a pretty good relationship.

“Yeah, of course we’re short. ‘Late Autumn Courtyard’ took more than fifty people to Suzhou, and quite a few of them were my guys. We’ve always been short-handed,” Philip Thompson said.

David Bolton said, “We’re with that crew too, they took more than a dozen of our people.”

At this moment, Henry Clark also dialed Philip Thompson’s number. “Brother Thompson, this is my number. Please look out for me in the future.”

“Mm.”

“Oh right, Brother Bolton, Brother Thompson, this is my friend Charles Young. Could you help him out and save his number too? Maybe we can sign up for roles together if there’s a chance?” Henry Clark noticed the envious look in Charles Young’s eyes and casually gave him an opportunity.

The two young team leaders didn’t object, so Henry Clark had Charles Young call them one by one and introduce himself. The two team leaders saved his number, which meant they acknowledged him. Then, without saying anything more to Henry Clark and Charles Young, they went off to recruit other extras.

After saving the numbers, Charles Young quietly said, “Thanks, Henry Clark.”

“It’s nothing.” Henry Clark shook his head, found an opportunity to pull David Bolton and Philip Thompson aside, and said, “Brother Bolton, Brother Thompson, we’ll head back now.”

“Alright, you guys go ahead. I’ll let you know when there’s a role to sign up for,” David Bolton waved his hand.

They took a taxi back. Maybe because Henry Clark had helped him get the numbers, Charles Young insisted on paying the fare. They rode all the way to the second-hand bicycle shop. As soon as they got out, they started picking out bikes. Having just received their actor IDs, both of them were pretty excited, eager to hop on their bikes and rush around Hengdian to act.

The second-hand bikes here were all sold off by former extras. Hengdian is huge, and it’s inconvenient without a bike. But those who couldn’t stick it out found it hard to take their bikes with them, so they sold them cheap to the second-hand shop.

Charles Young picked a second-hand bike for 170 yuan. It looked a bit ugly, but all the parts were in good shape. Henry Clark wanted a mountain bike. He looked at a few, but the ones he liked were too expensive, and the cheaper ones didn’t appeal to him. In the end, he settled on a red-and-white Warrior mountain bike for 260 yuan.

“It’s almost four o’clock now. I need to go back for a bit—I haven’t even bought toothpaste, a toothbrush, or a face towel yet, and I haven’t tidied up my place. I heard you can wait for roles at the old union hall around six tonight. Are you going?” Henry Clark sat on his second-hand mountain bike, hands gripping the handlebars, his body bent in an arc, looking very cool and confident.

“What about you?”

“We’ll see. I’ll go tidy up my place first. If I have time later, I’ll give you a call.”

“Alright.”

……

After locking his bike to the iron railing in the stairwell, Henry Clark started organizing his room. He opened his suitcase, took out a small quilt, and looked at the bed with the exposed wooden slats. After thinking for a moment, Henry Clark stuffed the quilt back into the suitcase.

He planned to buy a mat to lay on the bed slats.

He also needed to buy a toothbrush, toothpaste, washbasin, towel, soap, laundry detergent, and other daily necessities.

Henry Clark is someone who likes to keep things simple. When he left home, he brought as little as possible. So when he came to Hengdian, he just had a shoulder bag and a wheeled suitcase—nothing else.

In the suitcase, besides a small quilt, a few changes of clothes, and two pairs of shoes, the rest was a set of art supplies.

A drawing board, a collapsible easel, a large mountain-shaped drawing clip, colored butterfly clips, masking tape, sketch paper, a sketchbook, and a plastic toolbox.

Inside the toolbox were two erasers, three blending stumps (large, medium, and small), a small utility knife, a pencil extender, two HB pencils, four 2B pencils, six 4B pencils, three 6B pencils, three 8B pencils, one Marie’s 12B pencil, one Old Master 14B pencil, three charcoal pencils, and three charcoal sticks.

As an art student, Henry Clark really liked drawing, but his skills were only at a beginner’s level when it came to sketching. He hadn’t even scratched the surface with watercolor or oil painting.

Besides the suitcase, Henry Clark also had a shoulder bag, which contained a Hasee laptop he bought for over two thousand yuan. The specs were pretty low—it was fine for surfing the web, but not for gaming. The bag also had a few art books, some on figure structure, some on sketching techniques.

Then there were small items like a phone charger, earphones, a Swiss Army knife, and a flashlight.

After locking the door, Henry Clark went to the Jia Jia Le supermarket up front, bought all the daily necessities like a washbasin and toothbrush cup, and went back to his rental room. After another round of organizing, he finally got his new little place set up.

Right by the entrance was a small table. On the right was the door to the bathroom. Between the bathroom and the balcony, against the wall, was the bed. In front of the bed was a small open space, with a cabinet against the wall. In the middle were Henry Clark’s drawing board and easel, along with a chair with a backrest.

Overall, the space wasn’t big, but because there wasn’t much furniture, it didn’t feel cramped.