Chapter 23

The lead actor of this TV drama, Joongwang Kwon, made his debut in 1980 and is a veteran in the entertainment industry. He has participated in many well-received TV series. Although he is a familiar face and an extremely talented actor, he is still not considered a top-tier actor. Compared to young stars who became famous within five or six years of their debut, his career path has been quite bumpy. However, Joongwang Kwon does not complain about this; instead, he works even harder. He is extremely grateful for the opportunity to star in a large-scale historical drama like "Famous Doctor Heo Jun." Therefore, even though he was so exhausted from filming the herb-gathering scene that he vomited, he only rested for one night and resumed filming in the mountains the next morning as if nothing had happened.

This attitude earned him great respect from Zhang Chengyuan.

Today, on Jirisan Mountain, the main content to be filmed is: the protagonist Heo Jun goes up the mountain to gather herbs, gets lost in the deep forest, and is chased by wild animals in the dark. In a panic, he rolls down a hill and loses consciousness. When he wakes up the next morning, he is so hungry and thirsty that he starts eating the roots of the herbs he gathered, but accidentally eats a poisonous one and faints. At this moment, Zhang Chengyuan, playing the role of the mountain youth Zhang Lie, returns from hunting a tiger and discovers that Heo Jun is still breathing. He rescues Heo Jun and takes him to a cave, then feeds him a detoxifying herb from the mountains, temporarily stabilizing his condition. He then finds a wandering doctor who frequently treats leprosy patients in the mountains to detoxify Heo Jun, saving his life. Through this experience, Heo Jun realizes that to become a true physician, one must have a compassionate heart.

These scenes are divided into daytime and nighttime segments, and the crew first filmed the daytime scenes.

Zhang Chengyuan's participation in these scenes was minimal, but he did deliver a few lines.

The first line: "Oh! There's someone on the ground!" with a look of surprise.

The second line: "Thank goodness! He's still breathing." with a look of relief.

The third line: "You're awake!" with another look of relief.

The fourth line: "Why should I save you? Do I need to ask? I'm a human, and so are you. Of course, I have to save you!" This is the longest and last line, showing the innocent and pure mindset of a naive youth.

In every detail, from his eyes to his expressions and actions, Zhang Chengyuan performed exceptionally well, vividly portraying a brave, simple, yet kind-hearted young man. His clear, unfeigned gaze moved everyone. In this corrupt society, even slightly older children know how to vie for power and profit, making it rare to see the pure hearts of childhood. If Zhang Chengyuan had not cultivated a clear mind in his previous life, free from worldly concerns and unaffected by the environment, he would not have been able to maintain such a childlike heart, and these scenes would not have been so easily passed.

Perhaps this childlike heart is one of the reasons why Zhang Chengyuan easily won the affection of the four girls from Fin.K.L. His agent, Park Byung-ryul, also supports Zhang Chengyuan's every wish and maintains a good relationship with him to secure long-term benefits, knowing that Zhang Chengyuan will never forget his roots.

Due to Zhang Chengyuan's excellent performance, which saved time and money, the director praised him and formed a deeper impression of him, no longer seeing him merely as a pretty young face to please the audience.

After finishing the daytime scenes, they had a simple dinner and waited for it to get dark to start filming the night scene where the protagonist Heo Jun is chased by wolves and rolls down a hill. Although this scene had nothing to do with Zhang Chengyuan, he stayed to watch, hoping to gain some experience in night filming, especially in the outdoors, which is not easily obtained.

Night filming was indeed more challenging than daytime filming. Even with Joongwang Kwon's twenty years of acting experience, he made several mistakes. The mountain path was rugged, and while running, he had to look back frequently, showing the fear of being chased by wolves, often running out of the camera's range and requiring multiple retakes. The difficult rolling scene was performed by a stuntman, not Joongwang Kwon himself. This was not because Joongwang Kwon was afraid of getting hurt, but because the production team would never risk his safety for future scenes, which is one of the reasons why stunt actors exist.

After filming Joongwang Kwon's scenes, they had to film the wolves attacking him. Of course, they would not put Joongwang Kwon's life at risk by having real wolves chase him, nor would they bring a real wolf from a zoo to film. Instead, they rented a well-trained wolf dog to run along the path Joongwang Kwon had run earlier in the dark forest. With some post-production blurring, no one could tell the difference between a wolf and a wolf dog. Although it was not very realistic, this was a TV drama, not a movie, and the audience would not view it with the same critical eye. For the production team, saving money and not affecting the overall story was the priority.

For the next few days, Zhang Chengyuan had no scenes, and he initially wanted to stay and watch others act to improve his own skills. However, as a high school student, with the end of the semester approaching, his homeroom teacher strongly urged Park Byung-ryul to let Zhang Chengyuan return to school to prepare for his exams. To make it easier to take leave in the future, neither Zhang Chengyuan nor Park Byung-ryul could ignore the teacher's request, so he had to leave temporarily. He returned to the Jirisan production team on the weekend to continue filming.

Fortunately, it was his turn to film again that day. The scenes were not many, and if everything went smoothly, all the scenes involving him could be completed that day. This was not because the production team was giving him special treatment, but because the character Zhang Chengyuan played, Zhang Lie, was about to make a heroic sacrifice.

In the morning scenes, although Zhang Chengyuan appeared, he was merely a background character for the protagonist Heo Jun, with no lines. He followed Park Byung-ryul obediently, occasionally serving as a guard in front of him, making the brave youth who could kill tigers seem useless. Park Byung-ryul, seeing this, was very upset and silently criticized the scriptwriter as blind and stupid, lamenting, "All the public relations expenses spent on that guy were wasted."

However, the scriptwriter must have had his own difficulties. After all, the character Zhang Chengyuan played, Zhang Lie, was not originally in the script outline. If too much effort was spent on him, the rest of the script would need significant revisions, which would affect the shooting schedule. Moreover, a minor character like a mountain youth would not significantly impact the TV drama's ratings.

In the evening, Zhang Chengyuan waited for his final scene in the drama:

Heo Jun, in a desperate attempt to gather a life-saving herb, climbed a high cliff and accidentally fell. Zhang Lie, in a panic, lunged out to grab him. Although he managed to catch Heo Jun, they were still in danger. At that moment, they were hanging on a branch of a pine tree at the edge of the cliff, barely clinging to life. The pine tree was small, and the branch was thin, making them both precarious.

Heo Jun, seeing the situation clearly from below, shouted loudly, "Let go! Quickly let go of me, or you'll die too!"

Zhang Lie, of course, would not agree, shouting back, "Brother Heo, don't worry, we'll be fine."

Heo Jun's face turned red with urgency, crying out, "The tree is about to break. Let me go. It's not worth it to save a lowly person like me. Let go quickly, or it will be too late! Zhang Lie, I beg you." He struggled to break free from Zhang Lie's grip but was held firmly.

Zhang Lie glanced back, seeing the pine tree about to break, but turned to Heo Jun and smiled, saying, "Brother Heo, you will become a doctor who saves lives. You can save a hundred, a thousand, many lives. It would be a waste if you died. It's worth it to save so many lives with my life!" He smiled purely and brightly.

As he spoke, there was a "snap," and the branch broke. Both fell, but in this critical moment, Zhang Lie twisted his body with all his strength, throwing Heo Jun up onto the cliff and shouting his final words, "Brother Heo, you must become a doctor!"

Heo Jun, as soon as he landed, quickly got up and rushed to the edge of the cliff, but could no longer see Zhang Lie. He could only cry out in sorrow, "Zhang Lie! My brother! Ah! Ah!" This scene would surely be enhanced in post-production to create a heart-wrenching effect, shaking the audience to tears.