Friday, 6 PM, in front of the small supermarket in Chinatown.
Lin Wansheng, who had finished three shifts that day, lay exhausted on his father's personal recliner like a puddle of mud.
Mrs. Lin walked out from the back room carrying a steaming bowl of pork chop noodles.
Seeing her son in this half-dead state, her heart ached terribly.
She placed the bowl on the small stool beside him.
Reaching out, she tried to feel Lin Wansheng's forehead.
Muttering, "Aiyo, my boy, how did you get so exhausted!"
"Come, come, come, Mama will feed you."
Lin Wansheng shuddered all over in fright and hurriedly waved his hand.
He said weakly, "Dear mother, no, no, no, don't be like this."
"I'm just tired. Not paralyzed."
Mrs. Lin withdrew her hand in exasperation.
She turned and glared at Old Lin, who was leisurely reading the newspaper.
Lin Qiaosheng instantly sat up straight, feeling utterly baffled.
But he still carefully recalled everything that had happened today.
Making sure he hadn't done anything wrong.
Old Lin's spine collapsed back against the chair.
Mrs. Lin didn't pay any attention to Lin Qiaosheng's behavior.
Instead, she turned her accusations back on Lin Wansheng.
Using an interrogating tone, she said, "Confess honestly. Did you stay up all night playing on your phone again last night?"
Lin Wansheng was utterly confused. "No, Mom, you know my schedule for today."
"Then you must've been secretly playing games at night!" Mrs. Lin had her own unique brand of logic.
Then, angrily, she shoved that bowl of noodles into Lin Wansheng's hands.
The sudden movement made Lin Wansheng shudder from the heat.
Lin Qiaosheng instantly raised the newspaper over his head, completely ignoring Lin Wansheng's pleading gaze.
After finishing that bowl of noodle soup that weighed at least one and a half jin.
Lin Wansheng collapsed back onto the recliner again, thoroughly succumbing to a carb coma.
Just as he was drifting in a half-dreaming, half-awake state, a phone ringtone dragged him out of the haze.
He fumbled out his phone in a daze and swiped to answer.
"Jimmy! Where the hell are you?! It's already fucking seven o'clock, how are you not here yet?!" Wang Tiancheng's signature loud voice exploded like thunder on the other end of the line.
Lin Wansheng jolted from the shock, but his brain was still complete mush.
"Ah... ah? What's the rush, don't I not go on stage until after nine? That makeup artist said I didn't need makeup last time. I was planning to head over at eight."
"My dear brother, what makeup?! Something huge happened!" Wang Tiancheng was so anxious he was nearly cracking his voice.
"Hurry up and get over here! Agents are here! Several of them!"
"Huh? What agents?"
He sat up straight from the recliner instantly.
On the way to the club, Wang Tiancheng gave him a crash course over the phone on the American entertainment industry.
"Let me tell you, here, without an agent, you're a piece of gold thrown into a shit pit—nobody can see you!"
"In America, all the good opportunities, whether it's TV programs or big club performances, none of them are open to the public."
"No matter how famous you are online, without an agent's referral, you can't even touch the door of the mainstream stage."
Wang Tiancheng caught his breath and continued, "To some extent, an agent is also your guarantor."
"When he recommends you to a club, it's equivalent to vouching for you with his own reputation. This isn't just the stand-up industry—all entertainment trades, even those screenwriters who write American TV dramas, they all fucking have to have an agent!"
Lin Wansheng jogged all the way into the club's backstage makeup room.
Wang Tiancheng grabbed him, not caring that he was still panting, and pulled him directly behind the curtain leading to the stage.
"Shh, keep your voice down, look over there." Wang Tiancheng pointed at a gap in the curtain, signaling him to look.
Lin Wansheng leaned in. Through the gap, he saw several men and women sitting distinctly apart in the last two rows below the stage.
They stood out starkly from the surrounding audience members focused on the performance, each holding a small notebook, occasionally looking up at the stage, then quickly lowering their heads to write something.
"See them?" Wang Tiancheng lowered his voice, unable to conceal his excitement. "That one in the black suit is Maggie from CAH. She's represented several comedians who've done solo specials. The one with glasses next to her is from WMM..."
"Your performance last week, someone secretly recorded it and posted it on TikTok." Wang Tiancheng took out his phone and opened a video for him to see.
"That bit where you roasted Starbucks, it's already got over thirty thousand likes!"
"This whole crowd came today. They told Brother Yu they were here to scout new talent."
"Damn, the way they're putting on airs, the whole backstage is about to boil over."
"But Brother Yu told me, they're one hundred percent here for you!"
He pointed again at that white woman with golden, wavy hair. "Especially that Maggie. From the moment she walked in, she's been overtly and covertly asking Brother Yu about you."
Having said that, Wang Tiancheng turned his head and looked at Lin Wansheng nervously. "So? Is this week's material ready?"
"The other day, I went to your family's shop in the morning to find you. Your mom said you'd picked up some part-time job outside again?"
Lin Wansheng's heart sank.
Ready? Ready my ass!
He'd been busy as a dog this week; he'd even forgotten today was Friday!
If not for Wang Tiancheng's call, he'd probably still be on his family's recliner, sleeping until dawn.
But not a hint of this showed on his face. Instead, he revealed an extremely confident smile and patted Wang Tiancheng's shoulder.
"Don't worry," he said in a relaxed, casual tone.
"Do I look like someone who goes into battle unprepared? For today, I've spent the entire week preparing."
He pretended to continue observing those agents through the gap.
In reality, his gaze rapidly swept across the entire audience, hurriedly profiling tonight's crowd.
Just then, the makeup room door was suddenly pushed open.
Brother Yu walked in. Behind him was He Wenxuan, who had just finished performing.
Brother Yu's expression revealed neither joy nor anger.
"The room's a bit cold. Get up there directly and warm it back up."
"What a great audience. Welcome, everyone, to the Jimmy's talk show."
Lin Wansheng directly reused his opening line from last time.
The audience's reaction was much more enthusiastic than last time.
The club was packed to capacity today.
Except for those agents in the back rows with grave expressions, the rest of the audience had expectant smiles on their faces.
Seeing Lin Wansheng take the stage, several tables in the front row excitedly raised their glasses in a distant toast to him, and some people even whistled.
It seemed many of the people in the audience today had come specifically for him.
Lin Wansheng felt much more settled, and the hand gripping the microphone grew steadier.
In the back row, the woman Wang Tiancheng had called Maggie slowly raised her head. She was around thirty years old.
A head of golden hair spilled over her shoulders like a waterfall.
She wore a tailored silk blouse.
She possessed a unique temperament that interwove laziness and shrewdness.
She looked at Lin Wansheng under the spotlight. Nearly ten years in the agent business
allowed her to see, with just one glance through his T-shirt, the hidden, explosive muscle definition beneath.
"Oh, one of the few muscular guys among Chinese Americans," she murmured in a voice only she could hear.
She couldn't help but place the tip of the pen in her hand against her full red lips, gently tapping twice.
"What a pity, he doesn't wear glasses."
"If his eyes were a little smaller and he were a little shorter, then he'd be perfect."
This face...
For a comedian, especially an Asian comedian.
She sighed lightly and wrote a line in her notebook:
"Good looking, but not the right look."