Under the crew's canopy tent.
Li Mu was sitting leisurely in a master's armchair, the square table in front of him piled high with fruits and snacks.
There were melon seeds, peanuts, chocolate, drinks, fruits, and everything else you could think of—it looked just like a sundry store.
While snacking on treats and fruits, he was on his phone talking with Zhang Ruoyun.
He was grinning from ear to ear.
Going to work like this was seriously awesome.
"Yo, judging by your tone, you're doing pretty well over there, huh? What role did you land, second lead or third?" Zhang Ruoyun teased with a smile.
"The gig I've got right now? I wouldn't trade it even if they offered me the male lead," Li Mu replied cheerfully.
Zhang Ruoyun didn't believe it for a second: "Stop bragging."
Li Mu was just about to open his mouth to explain when Wang Hao came running back, panting heavily, holding a form in his hand: "Brother Mu, here is the list of things we need to arrange for today. Could you please take a look?"
Li Mu gestured for Zhang Ruoyun to hold on a moment and took the list to review.
"Four hundred boxed lunches, one hundred drinks, rental of ten cameras... total thirty-five thousand six hundred yuan."
The boxed lunches and the extras' wages made up the lion's share of the cost. Of course, Li Mu was just a nobody and couldn't get involved in the expenses for the big stars higher up.
Li Mu warily raised the bill, pulled Wang Hao close to his ear, and asked, "How come these boxed lunches cost fifteen yuan each? Are they made of gold or silver? You can get a fast food meal in the city for only thirteen or fourteen yuan."
Knowing he couldn't pull the wool over Li Mu's eyes, Wang Hao told the truth: "The listed price is fifteen, but they're actually ten. The rest is split between us logistics guys down here and Third Brother on a three-to-seven ratio."
"Why only seven percent?!" Li Mu muttered with dissatisfaction.
"That seven percent goes to Third Brother; we get to keep three percent. Third Brother only gave you that one percent share out of respect for you," Wang Hao explained with a ingratiating smile, looking at Li Mu with eyes full of envy.
Just from this single meal's boxed lunches, Li Mu could pocket two hundred yuan for free.
With two meals a day, he could easily pull in four hundred yuan in side money just from the lunches, not to mention everything else.
Filled with gratitude toward Ma San, Li Mu swiftly signed his name on the paper and then warned, "You'd better not pull any tricks on me, or I'll make you regret it."
"Understood, understood!" Wang Hao took the purchase order signed by Li Mu and went off to find finance to release the funds.
Li Mu resumed his previous relaxed posture, right as he was about to continue the earlier conversation with Zhang Ruoyun.
He only heard Zhang Ruoyun say, sounding exasperated: "Didn't you say your second uncle is a director? Why didn't he get you a role instead of having you do some trivial crap like logistics?"
He hadn't hung up the phone just now, and although the two hadn't spoken loudly, Zhang Ruoyun had heard it clearly.
Ordering boxed lunches—such a trivial little thing, what was there to be happy about?
Zhang Ruoyun couldn't bear to see Li Mu degenerate like this, so he anxiously advised: "Li Mu, come over to my side. I guarantee I'll get you a supporting role with actual screen time. It's got way more a future than being a punk logistics worker over there."
"No, no, no," Li Mu hurriedly interrupted. "Out of three hundred and sixty trades, every trade has its master. If I master logistics, I can still make something of myself."
While he might have had some prejudices about logistics before, after sitting here for a whole morning, Li Mu didn't have a shred of prejudice left.
This was a job that required all-around development, and you even got to manage a huge crowd of extras, as well as minor and major bit players.
It was way better than acting as some nameless nobody.
Even a major drama head like Ma San held a status comparable to the assistant directors on the crew.
"Go ahead and rot then. I'm calling Princess Jing right now, and you can explain it to her yourself." Zhang Ruoyun was genuinely anxious. Logistics workers were at the absolute bottom of the crew; what proper actor would ever do logistics?
Li Mu cursed inwardly, then played the emotional card with Zhang Ruoyun: "If you consider me a brother, just let me do logistics for two months. If it doesn't work out after two months, I promise I'll come straight to you."
"One month, tops!" Zhang Ruoyun compromised.
"Deal."
With that quick agreement, Li Mu hurriedly hung up on Zhang Ruoyun.
"Damn it, why is my hand always so itchy!" Li Mu gave himself a fierce slap to the face, feeling some regret that he shouldn't have called Zhang Ruoyun just to show off.
Taking a deep breath, Li Mu began his day's work.
Since filming wouldn't start for a little while yet, his work wasn't particularly busy, mainly consisting of coordinating personnel across various departments.
Because most of the actors were extras, Li Mu, as the assistant head of logistics, could easily keep them in line.
After patrolling the area once, it was soon time for lunch.
Wang Hao stood imposingly under a rain canopy, holding a large megaphone to hand out the food.
"Come and get it! Lunch is served!"
The previously quiet extras swarmed toward Wang Hao like zombies, a wave of motion.
"Line up! Line up, all of you get in line!" Wang Hao hurriedly stood on a stool, his face flushed as he threatened, "I want to see who dares to grab for it today—get in line, all of you! Damn it, do you only feel comfortable when I curse at you?!"
The extras chuckled sheepishly and immediately formed a neat line.
Just as Li Mu wanted to join the queue, the people around him cast surprised looks his way.
Why are you all staring at me?
Brother here has always been good about waiting in line, okay?
As Li Mu complained inwardly, Ma San walked out of the administrative building and waved at him. Li Mu stepped out of the queue and walked toward Ma San under the envious gazes of everyone present.
"Third Brother!" Li Mu called out with a smile.
"How is it? Are you getting used to doing logistics on your first day?" Ma San asked with a smile.
Li Mu replied, "It's mostly thanks to your prestige—they don't dare talk back to whatever I say. After a whole morning, apart from signing documents and reviewing the arrangements for the guys below, I just sat there daydreaming."
"Hahaha... you brat are beating around the bush to curse me, saying I'm not teaching you anything, right?" Ma San looked at Li Mu, his face full of smiles.
Li Mu coughed awkwardly: "Nothing like that."
"Alright, since we just happen to have time at noon, the two of us are going to have a proper meal." Ma San patted Li Mu's shoulder with a smile, not giving him room to refuse as he pulled him toward a Sichuan restaurant outside the crew's base.
Li Mu ordered a Kung Pao chicken and a purple cauliflower egg soup, and Ma San ordered three more dishes.
A Dongpo pork knuckle, a steamed pork slice dish, and a steamed river catfish.
All substantial dishes.
"Bring us two bottles of beer as well." After ordering, Ma San handed the menu back to the waiter and added with a smile.
"Third Brother, it's the middle of the day—isn't drinking a bit much?" Li Mu said, hesitating.
"What kind of drinking is a single bottle of beer? It's just rinsing your mouth," Ma San waved his hand with a smile, signaling Li Mu to set his mind at ease. "There's nothing much to do in the afternoon anyway, and even if there were big things, it wouldn't be your turn to carry the burden."
Seeing that he had put it that way, Li Mu didn't argue further.
Soon, the waiter brought the beer and also delivered a small plate of oil-fried peanuts.
The two of them nibbled on peanuts and drank straight from the bottles, and Ma San cheerfully passed on his experience: "Actually, in our line of work, it's as hard as you make it, but it's not really that hard either."
Li Mu straightened his posture, signaling for the senior to continue.
Having worked in this industry for so many years, the man surely had plenty of valuable experience worth learning from.
"The most important thing is knowing how to handle people and situations." Ma San took a large gulp of beer. "To put it bluntly, everyone in our industry from top to bottom—from the director down to the logistics staff and extras—is in the service sector."
Li Mu nodded. If the director wanted to make money, he had to treat the audience like his own father and coax them.
Once you kept the audience happy with your service, naturally there would be bundles of cash rolling in.
"As logistics staff, we have to answer to the director and the big stars up top, and manage all sorts of messy things down below—props, photography, major and minor bit players, and extras," Ma San continued. "If I had to rely entirely on myself, I'd be worked to death."
"So you have to use people, know how to use people, and use the right people."
"You have to give people a little sweetness, and keep them hooked with that bit of sweetness."
"You mean I should bring Wang Hao over to my side?" Li Mu realized.
Ma San chuckled and nodded: "Though Wang Hao has a bit of an eye for the powerful, he's also been knocking around this industry for a decade—he has capability and experience. Plus, this fellow is obsessed with official titles. If you share your authority with him, he'll definitely be fiercely loyal to you."
"Then many thanks for the guidance, Third Brother." Li Mu smiled gratefully and clinked his glass with Ma San.
"Between brothers like us, why mention things like that?"