Chapter Fifty-six: Setting Sail Once More

  For the next half month or so, except for returning to university to complete the re-enrollment procedures and attending a few classes, Zhang Chengyuan basically spent his time resting, adjusting his mindset and schedule, in order to transform himself from a soldier back into an ordinary urban person on a spiritual level.

  Taking advantage of this rare leisure time, Zhang Chengyuan contacted and reunited with old friends such as He Zhiyuan, Yuan Bin, Yin Enhuai, Wen Genying, and others to revive their friendship. At the same time, he watched popular TV shows, movies, variety shows, magazines, and weekly publications to understand the characteristics of the current era and trends, hoping to regain the feeling of ease and confidence when he first ventured into the advertising and entertainment industries.

  In addition, he went to China for another ten days, not to travel or cultivate his emotions, but to visit the depths of Wangwu Mountain where he lived in his previous life, the secret realm "Xiao You Qing Xu Tian". Unfortunately, time passed and the world changed. When he finally found the original site of "Xiao You Qing Xu Tian", he discovered that this secret realm had long since disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed before. It was unknown whether it was destroyed by the great changes in the world or ruined by external enemies. However, under the passage of time for thousands of years, all traces related to the secret realm had been erased, so how could Zhang Chengyuan infer the truth?

  The unyielding Zhang Chengyuan once again went to the caves and temples of various major sects in the cultivation world, hoping to find a remaining orthodox transmission to gain an answer. Unfortunately, he still had no harvest. More pitifully, after traveling extensively throughout the land, he couldn't even find a single genuine cultivator. The one with the highest cultivation he saw was only at the middle stage of refining essence and transforming energy, not even half as good as his current state, let alone comparable to the glorious era a thousand years ago.

  At this time, Zhang Chengyuan was extremely disappointed and saw that the Chinese mainland rarely saw traditional Han clothing and Tang etiquette. Compared to small countries with few people who knew how to preserve their own cultural heritage, even shamelessly occupying other countries' cultural traditions, the Chinese people's indifference to traditional civilization made him even more heartbroken and indignant. So he lost interest in wandering around China and hastily took a plane back to Korea, using his contact with relatives and friends to tell himself that he still had something to protect and a reason to survive in this world.

  With two more days of leisure, Zhang Chengyuan couldn't sit still and ran to the company asking Park Byung-ryul to arrange a suitable job for him as soon as possible. If this continues, he estimates that he will become an idle and lazy person, no better than a young man who is kept by others.

  During Zhang Chengyuan's rest, Park Hyung-ryeol was quite tired. Apart from paying attention to Kim Tae-hee's schedule, who is still very popular, he also had to thicken his skin to find some substantial work for Zhang Chengyuan.

  But Zhang Chengyuan is not as popular as he was two years ago, when his popularity was almost on par with that of a first-tier star, and the market demand for him was very strong. However, nowadays advertisers, TV producers, and PDs don't think highly of him because there are many new stars who have topics to talk about and can attract public attention, giving them more options to choose from.

  For such a situation, Park Byung-ryul and Jang Sung-won had anticipated two years ago, but when things came to their heads, they were still uncomfortable and resentful, and hated to beat these guys who looked down on them. Under the current circumstances, Park Byung-ryul reduced Jang Sung-won's worth by several levels, and also arranged for Kim Tae-hee to work with Jang Sung-won again to shoot an advertisement.

  After much effort, he finally managed to sell Zhang Chengyuan again by leveraging Kim Tae-hee's immense popularity in the advertising world, and even sparked a highly controversial topic in the entertainment circle: "Zhang Chengyuan returns after his military service, sticking closely to Kim Tae-hee". As a result, Zhang Chengyuan's popularity skyrocketed.

  For this kind of rumor-mongering method, Zhang Chengyuan and Jin Tai Xi originally both felt very disgusted.

  Thinking back to those days, Zhang Chengyuan would rather start from a small role than rely on Fin.k.l's popularity to rise quickly. On the other hand, Kim Tae-hee has been clean and self-disciplined since she entered the entertainment industry, relying on her own strength to pursue progress, although there will inevitably be rumors circulating, but they are not her intention.

  However, when she learned that the object of this rumor was Zhang Chengyuan, she didn't mind at all and even felt a little happy to help Zhang Chengyuan out, because she always regarded Zhang Chengyuan as a good friend and younger brother.

  Kim Tae-hee's words made Jang Sung-won, who had initially wanted to refuse the scandalous sales strategy, reluctantly agree. After all, if the woman didn't object, it would be too hypocritical for him, as a man, to strongly oppose it.

  With Kim Tae-hee's strong public influence, Jang Sung-won gained many opportunities to appear on screen, re-gathering a large number of his former fans and refocusing their attention on him. Moreover, with his impeccable physical appearance, he attracted the favor of a large number of innocent young girls who had just begun to understand romance, as well as the attention of some young people who liked to imitate Jang Sung-won's cool attitude.

  Cool and strong, simple and stylish is the image that Park Byung-ryul has redesigned for Jang Sung-won, but this was not a decision made to cater to the current trends in the entertainment industry, but rather a temporary strategy.

  Zhang Chengyuan was originally a silent and taciturn person who was not good at expressing himself. In high school, in college, and in the army, he had been mixed for so many years, and the friends he made would not exceed the number of fingers on one hand. Because the feeling he gave people was that he was strong, wise, very proud, and difficult to get close to. Unless you have been with him for a long time or are naturally compatible with him, you won't be able to discover his inner loneliness and longing.

  And after two years of training in the border military camp, he disliked smiling and talking even more. Only in front of Fin.k.l could he speak freely, and only in front of his friends did he still have a gentle expression and tone of voice. But in front of others, Zhang Chengyuan often had a cold face, with a cool and aloof demeanor that made people feel like they couldn't get close to him, giving off a strong sense of being disconnected from society and not fitting in with others.

  So wanting to mold him into a lovable, all-American boy-next-door image is, for the time being, an absolutely insurmountable problem. Forcing it will only result in drawing a tiger but ending up with a dog, and at that point, no matter how outstanding his appearance and abilities are, there won't be many people who want to pay attention to him.

  After redefining Zhang Chengyuan's image, Park Hyung-ryeol immediately let Zhang Chengyuan promote it. Therefore, in many public-facing occasions, except for necessary etiquette and interacting with fans, Zhang Chengyuan was always acting cool and aloof, even without pretending to be so, just standing there would have a "freezing three feet" effect, scaring away some ill-intentioned colleagues who wanted to give him attitude, as well as some beautiful female artists who wanted to come over and chat him up.

  While rushing to escape the numerous scandals, he also gained an advantage, which is that it made people have a deep impression of his image and unforgettable. Unexpectedly, after a gathering of celebrities, Zhang Chengyuan received several TV drama audition invitations.

  Of course, with his current situation of just returning and having only moderate popularity, the roles he was invited to audition for were basically unrelated to the male lead, and at most, they were second male leads. Among them, there were two that he was more interested in because the outlines of these two scripts were quite good and had great potential. One was "The First Love of the Crown Prince", playing a graduate of a prestigious school, with a calm and quiet personality, not given to idle chatter, who is an illegitimate child; the other one was called "Romantic Full House", playing someone who appears to be very charming as a man but has a rather gentlemanly heart, an elite in his industry.

  At first glance, the second role is more likable, and Zhang Chengyuan guessed that "Romantic Full House" is a very fresh and new drama, with a higher chance of success than "The First Love of the Crown Prince". So he temporarily listed this role as his first choice, but whether he could get it or not was not up to him. To be on the safe side, Zhang Chengyuan participated in the auditions for both roles.

  Zhang Chengyuan thought that if he could play both roles, it would be even better. Unfortunately, the schedules of "The First Love of the Crown Prince" and "Full House" conflicted, so he could only choose one of them.

  In the end, Jang Sung-won took on the first role, which was the second male lead in "The First Love of a Royal Prince". It wasn't because he failed to pass the audition for another role and had no choice but to take the first one; nor was it because the character of the second male lead in "The First Love of a Royal Prince" was similar to him, making it easy for him to bring the character to life. Rather, it was because his good sister Sung Yu-ri had already confirmed her appearance as the female lead in "The First Love of a Royal Prince".

  Before, he could run to the crew of "Autumn Fairy Tale" to play a small role for Wen Genying, whom he had just met. Now, not only can he be in close contact with Cheng Youli, but also play the second male lead. How could he possibly refuse such a good opportunity that kills two birds with one stone?

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