Chapter 62: The Journey to Bali

  Over the next dozen or so days, through constant collaboration and communication, the actors' relationships became much closer than before, with fewer polite phrases and more joking around; there were fewer perfunctory smiles and more genuine laughter, making the entire crew seem like one big family. Most of the credit for this goes to the leaders, Cha Tae-hyun and Sung Yu-ri.

  Che Taixian is humorous and interesting, with a strong ability to adjust the atmosphere, and has a humble and big-star demeanor. Cheng Youli is not quarrelsome or noisy, kind-hearted, and treats every crew member with great kindness. It's because of these two leading the way that the team's morale gradually improved, and everyone got along more harmoniously.

  Affected by the harmonious atmosphere and Cheng Yu's orders, Zhang Chengyuan also stopped putting on a cold face, often joking with the actors. Due to his appearance being too easy to give people a good impression, especially when he smiled, it was even more so. Plus, he wouldn't mind small losses or provoke trouble, so everyone felt that his heart wasn't as cold as his usual demeanor. From then on, the crew members were even kinder to Zhang Chengyuan.

  A few days later, the crew started their journey to Bali. This time almost all the actors followed to go to Bali, unlike the previous trip to Hokkaido, Japan, where some actors like Zhang Chengyuan did not go because they had no scenes to shoot.

  Bali, the "Jewel of the Thousand Islands" in Indonesia, is a paradise on earth and a world-class resort. It's also one of the most popular tourist destinations among Koreans. Due to its richness and beauty, some Korean dramas have chosen Bali as their filming location. The hit SBS drama "Temptation of Wife", starring Joo Sang-wook, Kim Ji-young and Lee Jae-hwang, which aired in January this year, also filmed many scenes here.

  Perhaps because Bali has attracted strong attention from Koreans, filming on location here will help increase ratings. Therefore, the financially powerful production team of "The First Love of a Prince" also arranged for this Bali shoot and plans to film six or seven episodes' worth of scenes here, so they will be staying in Bali for quite some time.

  For actors, such a beautiful and magnificent working environment is truly something that may not be encountered even after ten years of work. Everyone's mood is naturally joyful, thinking that in their spare time, they can also take the time to have some fun.

  Jang Sung-kyu doesn't like going out, unless it's with Fin.k.l, Soo-young, and others to have fun. Otherwise, he prefers staying at home. But seeing the beautiful Bali island, he got excited about traveling. He thought that if he could hold Sung-yuri's hand on a deserted island in Bali, they could spend a day playing together, surfing, swimming, or roasting seafood... it would be an enjoyable and wonderful thing. If Lee Hyo-ri, Yoo Jin, and Lee Jin could also come to join him, it would be even better.

  Unfortunately, as the female lead, Sung Yu-ri is the busiest among all actors. Her screen time even exceeds that of Cha Tae-hyun's. Not only does she have to go back and forth between the male leads, but she also has the most collaborations with supporting actors. Almost every actor has scenes with her, making her very busy and tired, which makes Jang Sung-won worried sick. Fortunately, she has practiced Jang Sung-won's "Health Qigong", so her physical condition and recovery ability are excellent, allowing her to withstand such a heavy workload without collapsing.

  However, due to her busy schedule and hard work, she couldn't find time to go out and play with Zhang Chengyuan, which also made Zhang Chengyuan worried and not dare to leave her alone. Therefore, when other actors finished their scenes for the day and went to enjoy the sunshine, beach, and fun, he was almost always guarding Seung Lee. The staff saw it and thought they were a couple in love but didn't dare reveal their true relationship.

  In addition to filming and taking care of Sung-yi, Jang Sung-won also has another job on the island of Bali. Park Byung-ryul asked him to take advantage of the beautiful scenery on the island of Bali during the filming break to shoot a summer photo album.

  After his discharge, because the popularity was still in the recovery phase, the company did not dare to release a new round of photo albums for him. However, with the broadcast of the new TV series starring Cha Tae-hyun and Sung Yu-ri just around the corner, this drama is bound to be a huge hit, and Jang Seung-won's popularity will also rise with it. Releasing a set of photos at this time would likely bring in a lot of money.

  Golden beach, crystal clear water, luxurious five-star hotel, on the Nusa Dua Beach, Zhang Chengyuan started shooting. Due to the crew only having half a day's time, minus the commute, the actual shooting time was only about four hours, but they had to shoot three scenes: inside the hotel, on the beach and surfing on the sea, the time was very tight.

  The shooting started in the hotel. Due to limited funds, only a luxurious suite was rented for two hours, and after removing the backdrop and equipment, there was little time left for Zhang Chengyuan to take pictures. Therefore, Zhang Chengyuan had to quickly enter a working state, using the shortest time and the most perfect state to pose hundreds of different poses for the photographer to choose from.

  This time, the photographer Kim Sung-young, who collaborated with Jang Seung-won, has been working in this field for over a decade and has also worked with Jang Seung-won for several years. He is very familiar with Jang's style, and their collaboration is seamless. If it weren't for this, Park Byung-ryul wouldn't have dared to ask them to produce high-quality photos in such a short period of time.

  For photo shoots, Jang Sung-won is extremely familiar, having taken many photos for various magazines and pictorials before enlisting. Due to the numerous times he has done so and his exceptional professional skills, he was even jokingly referred to as a "photo shooting robot". As a result, although it's been over two years since he last took photos, through these few months of commercial and TV filming, his photography state has basically recovered. At this point, without needing Kim Sung-yong to instruct him much, with just a slight hint, he can easily strike the poses and expressions that satisfy Kim Sung-yong the most. The transitions between various expressions and actions are smooth and natural, leaving people in awe.

  Moreover, throughout the entire filming process, Zhang Chengyuan did not make a single mistake and did not take a break once. His mental focus and physical energy made several newcomers to Jin Chengyou's team fully understand why Zhang Chengyuan had the nickname "machine" back then.

  After finishing the indoor photo shoot, there were still over 10 minutes left before checking out of the suite. Park Byung-ryul and Kim Sung-young took a short rest and tasted a cup of high-end French wine that had been airlifted from France. Jang Sung-won didn't need to rest at all and wasn't interested in European wine, so he walked onto the beach to carefully observe the surfing performance of the local resort staff. This was because he would be shooting photos related to surfing next, but he wasn't very familiar with surfing techniques yet.

  As expected, Zhang Chengyuan suffered a lot in the subsequent surfing photo shoot. Either his movements were not elegant enough to satisfy the photographer, or he was forced to do it and ended up falling into the sea. As time passed, when Park Hyeong-ryeol and Kim Seong-yong were about to let him give up, Zhang Chengyuan, who was not discouraged, finally grasped the key to success. He seemed to have entered a special state, and his hands and feet on the surfboard suddenly became agile. No matter what difficult movements he made, he could perform perfectly, seemingly no different from professional surfers.

  Jin Chengyong quickly directed the staff to take pictures, fearing that Zhang Chengyuan's incredible performance would not last long and he would be struck back to his original form. His guess was correct, as Zhang Chengyuan indeed could not maintain this state for a long time. His skills couldn't make rapid progress in a short period of time, and his amazing performance relied on his strong cloning ability. Due to the limited shooting time, Zhang Chengyuan didn't want to give up on this surfing photo shoot, so he forcibly cloned the surfing moves of several nearby surfing masters, allowing him to perform many high-difficulty actions. Unfortunately, with today's declining spiritual energy, his current strength is not very strong, making it impossible for him to continuously perform for too long, so his stunning surfing performance that left onlookers speechless could only last about half an hour.

  When Jin Chengyong was satisfied with letting Zhang Chengyuan stop, Zhang Chengyuan's expression relaxed and he immediately fell into the water. By the time he swam to the shore, he was already panting heavily, his spirit even more exhausted. After secretly adjusting his breath for over half an hour, he finally felt roughly recovered. However, the consumed spiritual energy would take at least a week to recover.

  Because I rested for more than half an hour to catch my breath, the time left for beach photo shooting was only more than half an hour. If it couldn't be completed in time and returned to the crew in time, it would affect the TV series shooting at night.

  Park Byung-ryul also rushed, urging the entire crew to make every effort to speed up filming and promising a big dinner in the evening to motivate the staff's work enthusiasm. At this point, everyone made every effort to accelerate the progress of the photo shoot, fortunately, everyone cooperated tacitly as usual, and Jang Sung-won's performance in this scene was also excellent, so the efficiency was extremely high, and finally completed the filming of the beach scene within the prescribed time without any discount.

  Afterwards, Zhang Chengyuan and Park Hyeong-ryeol hastily took a car back to the crew, while Kim Sung-yong and his filming team stayed behind to enjoy the delicious food that Park Hyeong-ryeol had promised earlier, and also take in the beautiful scenery to clear their minds.

  When Jang Sung-won returned to the set, he just caught up with his part of the shoot, so before he could even catch his breath, he started working again. Although he himself felt physically strong and completely capable of handling it, Seong-yool looked on from the side and felt a great deal of heartache, strictly ordering him not to push himself so hard in the future, and even going so far as to find Jang Sung-won's agent Park Byung-ryul after filming ended, asking Park Byung-ryul not to give Jang Sung-won any more high-intensity work.

  Park Byeong-ryeol felt wronged, today's photo shoot, although it was his idea, but got Zhang Chengyuan's consent, and shooting three scenes in one afternoon is also Zhang Chengyuan's own request, not his coercion. Just as he was about to explain to Seung-yool, he saw Zhang Chengyuan secretly giving him a wink, asking him not to reveal the truth, so he had no choice but to take the blame for Zhang Chengyuan.

  After seeing Sung Yu-ri's concern for him, Jang Sung-won immediately put on a tired look and asked Sung Yu-ri to give him a massage. Although Sung Yu-ri suspected that he was pretending, she still fulfilled his request, making Jang Sung-won almost unable to sleep that night. Unfortunately, during their month-long stay in Bali, Sung Yu-ri only served him like this once.