Zhou Zishu

' ❝ How can people like you and me bear to be asked about our lives?. ❞ ' "- Zhou Zishu"

Zhou Zishu (周子舒, Zhōu Zi Shū) is one of the main characters of the Faraway Wanderers (天涯客) novel, and the Word of Honor (山河令) live action series.

He was a former leader of the Four Seasons Manor (Sect) (四季庄主). He was also formerly the very first ever leader of the Window of Heaven.

He is currently posing as a broke, homeless wanderer who sings little tunes off-pitch. He uses the name Zhou Xu (周絮, Zhōu Xù), when in his disguise(s).

Appearance
Under his disguise, he is described as a handsome man, who appears to be around 30.

He has a bony, sharp-cut profile. He also shows his true skin color, which is darker than his disguise(s). There is no color on his face but black and white. He has pale and gaunt cheeks, and bloodless lips as thin as a line.

He has weighty, startling bright eyes that are like thick, rich ink. He has very deep hollows under his eyebrows, and thick eyelashes that half covered his eyes. In those eyes, there seems to be a coalesced black that will not diffuse. Only when the angle changed, did a barely there reserved luster flow over them. He had a habit of looking down, which was a common habit. However, the rare times he looked up, a chilling cold in his eyes could be seen. The addition of an elegant slope of nose, and a contemptuous curl of lips is a treacherous touch to his handsome look.

The pale regions of his face are far too pale, the striking regions are too deep. They always give off the impression of cold-heartedness. It is only when he laughs that his brows relax, lines appear by the corners of his mouth, and faint color surfaces on his pale lips. According to Wen Kexing, this makes him look adorable.

He wore turquoise robes when he was still a leader in the Tian Chuang. He looks relatively well-built. However, once his robes are removed, a shriveled body comes into view, like something has drained life completely out of it. On his haggard frame are six Nails already being put in for apparently a long time ago, having almost become one with the flesh.

According to Gu Xiang, he has ice-cold hands. He carries himself with a scholarly grace, but there were traces of sickness on his complexion. By the time he meets Jin Beiyuan and according to the latter, he has become very thin.

According to Wen Kexing, he has a distinct back. He always gets a distinct feeling from looking at Zhou Zishu’s back, to the point that he could recognize it immediately in a crowd. His back isn’t always straightened. Oftentimes, it will lazily curve in a way that doesn't affect his elegance at all, and gives the impression of an incredibly comfortable person. Wen Kexing finds out there seems to be not a single matter that can plague Zhou Zishu's mind, and that one will feel unusually peaceful and comforted the moment they land their eyes on him.

Also according to the former, even when the other man is dressed in rags and looks dejected in his own misery, there is always an indescribable aura that he exuded. It takes Kexing back to a certain afternoon with the brilliant sun.

Zhou Xu Disguise
According to Jin Beiyuan, no matter how he disguises himself; he doesn't really look anything other than a man with a yellowish-green face and sleazy features.

He has a sickly face with deadly pale skin and dull eyes. Under the light of a luminous pearl, he has very bright eyes that carried an indescribable hint of playfulness. That look was somewhat familiar to Wen Kexing. It is so that at first glance he looks like someone on the brink of death.

He removed and burned his old robes. He wears a plain set of clothes he conveniently stole from a farmer’s house by the road. He carries an old flask tied around his waist, half-full with unfiltered rice wine. After 10 days, he looks even worse. His appearance is wretched, and face evidently becomes ill. He has sallow, skinny hands and a sallow, skinny face. His emaciation, wine-reeking clothes and an untamed bird’s nest hair completes his "beggar" look.

He obtained nice clothes in the form of new robes to replace his ragged ensemble when staying in the Gao Residence. It actually took a while for him to get used to the new clothes. He had worn rough materials for so long that the smooth fabric felt slippery and cold to the touch, just like a layer of mucus. His Nail-ravaged body seems incapable of handling the new clothes hanging on its frame, not unlike a shaky skeleton struggling to prop up the fabrics.

Other Disguises & Removing
He has only removed his disguises twice until Chapter 40. He then removes it again, at ease when meeting his old friend, Jin Beiyuan.

To remove his disguise, he fishes a bottle of ointment from his robes, and rubs the contents onto his face. The waxy yellowish-green color of his disguise is then washed off. He puts on a new human mask, transforming into a shifty-looking, slant-eyed middle-aged man like the great shift of heaven and earth. It was successfully removed by WKX, who calls it "catastrophically tragic". He then puts on another human mask that is "uglier" than the previous one.

Personality
Taking advantage of situations is his strongest point, and his skills worked on everyone except for Wen Kexing. Only a few sentences into the conversation with Cao Weining, and the latter already felt like they were the closest of comrades. He started telling the other everything possible.

History
He shouldered the responsibility of the Four Seasons Sect as a child of 15, after its previous Master passed away.

At 18, he met Crown Prince He Lianyi by chance, which sparked his youthful heroism.

He established the Window of Heaven single-handedly at the age of 23. He then lived neither as a man nor ghost in those 10 years, and his name could not be recorded in the annals.

Back when the previous Emperor had been on the throne, he was the one who set a domino chain of plans in motion to wipe out the Second Prince's gang. He was also the one who picked out a whole bunch of worms who had eaten holes in the rotten court. Back when the Northern brutes invaded the Central Plains and were headed straight for the capital, he was the one who guarded the Chengwu Gate to the death, without budging a single inch. The reason why the nation of Daqing can gradually recover from the winds and storms, and the thousand holes riddled into it to show a hint of liveliness. He managed it all single-handedly back then, his methods were vicious and he hurt people.

Effects of The Nails

 * Limited Life Span - He have only around two to three years left to live. However, Wu Xi might have a "cure" for him. He proposed Zishu to consider ridding himself of his own martial ability. Even then, there is still only a fifth of chance that his life can be saved.
 * Halved Martial Arts Strength - Due to the effects of the Nails, his martial arts strength is reduced by half.
 * Periodic Pain - He suffers from prickling pain in his chest when the Nails are acting up. It is not the kind of pain that mangles one's body, or the slow, simmering kind as seen with internal injuries. It is one that feels like someone is cutting his meridians apart one by one. After more than a year of suffering he had well adapted to the pain, and nothing showed on his face anymore.
 * Sleeping Schedule - The Nails will always raise hell after midnight, so he usually makes sure to sleep early in order to gather enough strength when the torment hit. The agony only subsides when the sun rises. If his schedule is broken and he is unable to go back to sleep; all he could do now was gritting his teeth and bearing it. By then he felt like he was almost paralyzed. Thus, morning is when he is at his weakest.
 * Withered Meridians - Even Ye Baiyi doesn't know of a way to treat his Nail injuries. According to the former, his meridians have almost withered completely, like an ancient tree without roots. Even removing the poison inside you won’t help. In fact, channeling more energy into himself will break his dying meridians, and he can only perish.

Abilities

 * Master Disguise - He has an unspecified amount of human masks on himself that he use to disguise himself. He has learned the technique from his former master, Qin Huaizhang. It is said to be impossible to recognize him the moment he joins a crowd. He is able to conceal himself, going from the most frightening individual in the palace to a free-spirited, miserable-looking wanderer riding a thin horse, gnawing a straw in his mouth while humming folk songs takes that place. He becomes the first to actually get away from the Window of Heaven network just like that.
 * Unique Qinggong (轻功) - He knows the one-and-only “No Boundaries, No Traces” (无际无痕) branch of the Four Seasons Sect. It was taught by Qin Huaizhang as well.


 * Flute Craftsmanship & Playing - He demonstrated them when fighting back against the musical (zither) skills of “Enchanted Song” Qin Song. He made a flute during the journey out of boredom with very poor craftsmanship. The notes are not right and the tuning is all over the place, thus he never got around to using it. A big crack appeared in it after a single use. His flute playing is described to be "an ear-piercing noise". However, normally flutes would never make sounds that sharp, so sharp to the point it felt like they could tear something apart.
 * Medicinal Skills - He himself states that he wouldn’t call himself an expert in medicine-related matters. He might not possess an intensive knowledge about the field. However, he had seen enough to know that there had yet to exist a poison that could cause hallucinations for a certain long period of time.
 * Enhanced Hearing - His hearing is retained due to the secret of the Nails Punishment. He could hear Gu Xiang, and didn’t miss a single word. Even though the former was a noisy road away, and her voice was at a medium volume.
 * Bad Swimmer - He is not good at swimming. The best he can do is hold his breath for a long time underwater.

Skills and Weapons

 * Baiyi (白衣) - It is a Whip sword (软剑) that was given to him by his master, Qin Huaizhang. The sword has its name “Baiyi” carved on it. The sword was in turn, actually gifted to the former by Ye Baiyi. Zishu himself once thought it was some kind of mysterious motto, however it turned out to be a symbol of Baiyi himself.