Chapter Text
~Zhou Zishu~
Show!ZZS
In the show, ZZS is basically a loyal and considerate person. He’s also an extremely responsible person. When he visits Mirror Lake sect and it’s attacked, his first instinct is to go look if anyone needs help. He also cares a great deal about the people around him, which I don’t think needs to be explained, but just look at how he stalks Chengling at first, and then his plea with Ye Baiyi in episode 27.
While he’s done a lot of bad things in Tian Chuang, he also feels deep regret and guilt for it. This is pretty much made clear from the get-go, and is continually shown to us through his flashbacks and, later on, his conversation with Beiyuan and Prince Jin when he meets them again. He only really goes for the kill if the other person attacks first.
Finally, ZZS in the show is just kind of, steadfast. After he acknowledges WKX, he’s the one who’s pushing for WKX to open up to him. However, he’s never obnoxious about this. He just shows WKX that he’s there, and always there to be a pillar of support.
Book!ZZS
In the book, ZZS is kinda a nihilist. He’s still loyal in the sense that he won’t betray his friends, and he’s considerate in the sense that he knows when to stop pushing on people’s sore points, but those would not be the first two words to come to mind when trying to describe him.
When he visits the Mirror Lake sect, the only reason he helps out the fisherman and Chengling is because they stumble across him. Unlike show!ZZS, he does not go out of his way to try and help people. He also doesn’t care about potentially innocent people dying, or killing innocent people himself. When he first meets YBY, he actually considers killing him, just because he doesn’t want to be bothered to talk.
Then we get this tidbit about his motivations for creating Tian Chuang, in chapter 2:
“Back when he was still green, he always regarded himself as someone superior, welcoming any praises possible for himself: how smart he was, how cunning he was, how good he was at martial arts, how knowledgeable; as if not trying to achieve something in his lifetime would be the biggest waste for humanity. But now that he thought of it, what exactly did he want?”
So ZZS basically creates Tian Chuang out of arrogance (and some care for the country). ZZS leaving Tian Chuang is mostly motivated by realizing that his great works meant nothing, and he just wants to live in freedom. While he thinks about Four Seasons Manor, he’s not overly concerned with it. He also doesn’t seem to regret his actions in the past.
Book!ZZS is an extremely morally gray character. He has a lot of good points too (like the fact that he’s hilarious, for one), but I’m just pointing out the main differences here.
So why do these differences exist?
Well, there’s the obvious censorship/adaptation answer, but there’s an in-universe explanation for this too. And this reason is: because show!ZZS is related to the royal family. I know, I know, at first this little plot point seems to have no relevance whatsoever. It seems like they just threw it in there to make ZZS look cool. But, actually, it explains all the character differences.
In the book, ZZS was a nobody (in the wider scheme of things I mean), and it’s emphasized multiple times that he joins Prince Jin / Helian Yi of his own accord. He was arrogant and wanted to achieve great deeds. It’s only when everything is finished (Helian Yi became the Emperor), that he left. So book!ZZS was primarily motivated by the idea of being someone who was foundational to building the country.
Moreover, when ZZS was leader of Tian Chuang, he became a “true ghost”. He completely lived his life in the shadows. He was just completing missions all the time (which included seduction btw but he’s like James Bond in this scenario). ZZS basically did not live like a human, and just became a killing machine.
In the show, ZZS is nobility, which means he was always someone important, and his actions always had the ability to impact the country. He joins Prince Jin sort of to help his cousin, but mostly because he saw no other way to protect Four Seasons Manor. So show!ZZS was primarily motivated by his protective nature.
Moreover, because show!ZZS is kinda royalty, there’s no way he was anonymous. It’s more likely that he lived a double life. This is heavily hinted at in episode 1, where Minister Li recognizes ZZS in one glance. Minister Li also calls ZZS with the honorific ‘Da Ren’, which is not something you would say to a random guard. Also in episode 36, ZZS directly says he's the one who raised the Jin army... so like he's probably an actual general. This all points to the fact that show!ZZS still lived a human life along with his secret assassin life, which is why he’s softer in the show.
And thus, because book!ZZS and show!ZZS had different experiences with and in Tian Chuang, they became different people when they left! Of course, ZZS’s differences still aren’t as drastic as…
~Wen Kexing~
Show!WKX
In the show, Wen Kexing is basically a good kid who was stuck in the worst situation, and makes some terrible decisions because he doesn’t know what else to do. This is most prominently shown when he gives up his revenge in the end, and then confesses to ZZS that he’s never felt happier and more relieved.
He is a kid who is lashing out. In episode 31, he talks about how he got actually already got his revenge by killing the previous Ghost Valley chief and subordinates. So even before the series began, his childhood goal was completed. However, he still felt empty after taking revenge, so he thought this meant he needed to kill more people. So then this idea to destroy Jianghu gets cemented in his head and he comes to genuinely believe it’s what his parents deserved. But make no mistake, this is basically a reactionary move. Then the culmination of his character development is when he delivers Zhao Jing to justice instead of indulging in personal vengeance. He realizes his own peace wouldn’t come from taking revenge, realizes his parents wouldn’t want to wash Jianghu with blood and would just want him to live happily, and chooses light over darkness. You could say that he reclaims the part of himself that is ‘Zhen Yan’, the part that is the son of a righteous couple rather than the ghost. Note the choice here, because it’s important when comparing with book!WKX.
Show!WKX is also kinda… fragile. When the Sages of Anji die because of his actions (and note that he didn’t even kill them), he kind of goes crazy for a bit. How many times has he experienced emotional turmoil in the show and ended up collapsing because of it? I can’t imagine that happening to book!WKX at all. There’s also an interesting line said in the show which also occurs in the book, but it has a slightly different flavour. WKX asks Gu Xiang if GX thinks he is scary/crazy, and she replies yes. When book!WKX asks this, his intention is to test if anyone understands him, and GX fails, so he realizes that ZZS is unique because ZZS isn’t afraid of him at all. In the show, however, WKX asks this during one of his lowest points, after ZZS has rejected him. The feeling that’s given when he’s asking it is that he’s sort of given up on himself, he doesn’t see himself as worthy of ZZS, and he’s asking GX to confirm that he’s a bad person. Even with the same lines, the implications behind each character’s actions are quite different.
Bonus: I’m like 90% sure that this WKX doesn’t have the same sexual experience as book!WKX. Why? Because it’s implied that he’s never left Ghost Valley before his revenge plot. Gu Xiang talks about how she’s never experienced being human before, and that’s why she’s turned soft enough to fall in love with Cao Weining. This means she’s never accompanied her ‘master’ outside. WKX has never talks about a previous visit to the outside world with ZZS. In fact, in episode 7, ZZS teases WKX for not knowing the common Jianghu codes, which again, implies WKX hasn’t been outside for a long time. While the lack of brothels can be blamed on censorship, I’m positive that the scriptwriter could have easily made WKX mention something else which implies experience if he had it.
Plus, show!WKX has kind of been in love with ZZS since he was a child (this will be explained!!), and he was raised by the owner of the List of the Unfaithful. Because of these things, I just don’t see show!WKX seeking out sexual pleasure from strangers.
(That said, I do need to point out that WKX DOES make fun of the Hua Sect for looking like virgins, and teases ZZS about not being scared of ghosts because maybe ZZS is a virgin, but then WKX pretends that he’s scared of ghosts… so you could make the argument here that he’s implying he’s experienced. Personally I attribute this to his usual nonsense, because show!WKX seeking out pleasure for himself doesn’t otherwise fit his character, but it’s up to you how you interpret this.)
Book!WKX
In the book, Wen Kexing is a nihilist just like book!ZZS. He’s also a chess master, vicious, and kind of cold. Despite already finding his happiness in ZZS, he still goes back and takes his revenge against Ghost Valley. Unlike show!WKX, Jianghu was never even his target, but he needed them to wipe out Ghost Valley, which means he’s a-okay with a bunch of people unrelated to his revenge dying for his revenge.
He is a person who is perfectly in control. He spent years manipulating his Ten Ghosts so that they would leave Ghost Valley themselves. He’s never caught off guard by anything that happens in the plot, unlike show!WKX who gets played hard during the conference with Gao Chong. While he seemed to slack off by accompanying ZZS for like half a year, actually that was part of his plans too. Scorpion King, Zhao Jing, the Ten Ghosts— everyone gets played by him. Near the end of the novel, when WKX goes to take revenge, it’s with cold calculation. While he does manage to personally kill Zhao Jing, it doesn’t seem like he partially cared about it. With the way that WKX set things up, it doesn’t seem to matter who killed who, as long as they were all killed. And WKX’s revenge succeeds, from start to finish. His relief comes when it is successfully completed.
Unlike show!WKX, the book version never chooses light. Instead, he experiences light after the darkness. When he’s about to die and ZZS shows up, he finally sees a chance at a second life, one where he doesn’t have to be imprisoned by his revenge, but where he can freely wander the world with his soulmate. He leaves his past behind, and looks forward to a different kind of future.
Bonus: And of course, book!WKX is definitely not a virgin. He’s made numerous trips outside Ghost Valley to visit brothels and he physically flirts with ZZS a LOT. Actually he’s pretty sleezy about it, which I could never see show!WKX doing… well it probably makes more sense to explore this in the relationships section.
Bonus 2: Book!WKX is like super scary in universe. ZZS admits that WKX would win if they fought to the death. Scorpion King admits he’s frightened by WKX’s martial ability. Even Wu Xi (ML of Lord Seventh) says WKX is someone he definitely wouldn’t want to fight. Although presumably show!WKX may also be these things, it’s certainly not emphasized in the show, whereas the book never gives up an opportunity to showcase how frightening WKX actually is, which just gives off the impression that book!WKX is a really scary person.
So why do these differences exist?
For WKX, there’s two primary plot reasons why these two characters are so different: 1) Meeting Qin Huaizhang at a young age; and 2) the existence of the Tragicomic Ghost
First up is meeting Qin Huaizhang. This seems innocuous, but it’s actually huge. Why? Because, as WKX says in episode 25, that moment became a safe haven for him. Whenever things got too difficult for WKX to deal with in Ghost Valley, he would pretend that it was all a nightmare, and he would live his ideal life as Zhen Yan, disciple of Qin Huaizhang, ZZS’s shidi, in his dreams. It became a crutch for him, and his only source of light (until Gu Xiang came along) in Ghost Valley. This means that show!WKX idealized his past, and although he’s rejected his identity as Zhen Yan, he’s always yearned for it. Book!WKX, on the other hand, had no such mental protection, so he’s able to completely abandon his past self.
The second thing is the Tragicomic Ghost, who is implied (most prominently in episode 31) to have watched out for show!WKX when he was young. And people under the Tragicomic Ghost’s protection are treated pretty well. This is suggested through how loyal her subordinates are to both her and each other, which would be unheard of in book!world, where anyone can betray anyone. Also, in the show, these women are implied to have only ended up in Ghost Valley because they were betrayed or treated poorly in the outside world, which means that they are just abused women, and not like the most evil people on the planet. If WKX grew up in this environment, it would definitely preserve some of his kindness. In fact it is implied that he cares about these women - he does try to help them out throughout the series, they are genuinely glad to see him when they’re in trouble instead of being scared, and at the end he even allows them to leave Ghost Valley. Obviously show!WKX still went through a lot of abuse, because it’s pretty clear that the Ghost Valley Master wanted to abuse him specifically, and Tragicomic Ghost couldn’t stop that, but he probably wasn’t fighting every day for scraps.
Book!WKX on the other hand, didn’t have any such role model. So, he became a lot like the other ghosts who existed there, killing indiscriminately, and seeking sexual pleasure in brothels. He’s only left a bit of kindness for Gu Xiang, and even then, it’s not much kindness. You can tell because book!Gu Xiang is a lot more vicious and frightened of him than our vivacious show!Gu Xiang.
And of course, the Tragicomic Ghost’s existence prevented one of book!WKX’s greatest tragedies for show!WKX. Because Tragicomic Ghost wanted to save show!WKX’s life, she spoke up for him and got him accepted into Ghost Valley. Book!WKX didn’t have this character, so he had to… eat his father’s corpse. Sigh. How do you come back from that huh?
Bonus: I think one of the funniest (and saddest) differences is that book!WKX is said to be good at everything except healing. He can’t even bandage someone properly. Show!WKX on the other hand, is implied to be an excellent healer, taking after his parents. He’s good at diagnosing people, knows how to pass internal energy to ZZS to soothe the nails, and in episode 28 he even does acupuncture on Han Ying. This must be, again, to show the differences in their attitude towards their past.
~WenZhou~
I feel like book!WenZhou are in fact zhiji AKA ‘soulmates’. They know without asking exactly what the other is thinking, and they support each other unconditionally.
Show!WenZhou, on the other hand, are more like… fated? IDK how to describe this, but it’s like they are heaven’s gift to each other.
Let’s go ahead with the breakdown:
Book!WenZhou
From the very beginning, the connection is made because both feel that the other understands them. These two were strangers who nonetheless felt the same things about the world, which they both realized at a glance. WKX is intrigued by this and chases ZZS, becoming increasingly enamored. ZZS is scared by this, when he’s already decided he doesn’t want to be ‘known’, and runs away.
They both just kind of know what should and shouldn’t be talked about with each other. They’re also just often on the same wavelength as each other. Since both of them are not exactly good people, their first instincts are usually to kill and spy and cheat. They’re both extremely smart as well and can keep up with each other mentally. ZZS often notices when what WKX says doesn’t actually match how he feels, and he responds to how WKX feels, and vice-versa. So they’re very ‘suited’.
WKX flirts a lot with ZZS, and very physically as well. WKX wants to take ZZS’ mask off because he genuinely wants to see how pretty ZZS is. WKX also takes advantage of ZZS a lot, which ZZS is initially annoyed by, but gets used to later. Since they both have a lot of sexual experience, there’s a very adult feel to this relationship, sort of like a hook up that evolves into an actual relationship, though of course no actual sex happens until the very end.
These two also bicker A LOT. They fight over every little thing. It’s actually kind of amazing. They’re constantly trying to one-up each other. WKX will make some snide comment and ZZS will jab back. There’s also a ton of hilarious misunderstandings from bystanders.
In the end, ZZS realizes that WKX is sincere and finally reciprocates his feelings. In the meantime, WKX has basically fallen in love with ZZS, but doesn’t completely give his heart away until ZZS arrives at the final battle at Ghost Valley and saves WKX, offering him a second life.
Both of them discard their pasts and decide to wander the world together.
Bonus: They also, hilariously, do battle to determine who gets to be top or bottom for sex. In the extra, WKX even cries in order to trick ZZS into letting him top. This is, again, because both of them are really competitive people, and they both have very alpha energy going on. So it’s hard for either to ‘submit’. Personally though, I think that as far as the book version goes, WKX is more in-line with the typical ‘gong’ of cnovels.
Show!WenZhou
From the very beginning, the connection is made because of their shared past. In episode 25, WKX reveals that he followed ZZS around, and wanted the face reveal, because he wanted to confirm that it was in fact Zhou Zishu. And ZZS is, you know, the person who WKX mentally used as a safe haven during all those years in Ghost Valley. So WKX’s initial interest in ZZS is because of a desire to connect to his past, to be ‘Zhen Yan’. This is also why WKX constantly emphasizes how good of a person he is, and acts so cutely (‘like a human’), because with ZZS he can revert to his innocent past self and he revels in it.
WKX declares pretty early on that he considers ZZS to be his zhiji/soulmate, and ZZS also begins to think this starting in episode 9. However, this always felt very weird to me. This concept of zhiji is the concept of ‘knowing’ someone, of completely understanding and accepting someone and being compatible with them.
In CQL/The Untamed, Wei Wuxian tells Lan Zhan that he considers them as zhiji during the hunt at Phoenix Mountain, and this makes sense because from all that we’ve seen of them so far, they are the same type of people. They uphold justice and fight to save innocents. At this point they’ve already made the same wish on the lantern, and have proved their ideals when fighting against the Xuanwu. Later, when Wei Wuxian is rescuing the Wens from the Jin camp, it’s preciously because Lan Zhan understands where Wei Wuxian is coming from that Lan Zhan lets them go.
However, there’s no indication in the SHL/WoH that WKX and ZZS hold this level of similarity and understanding, especially not this early on. In fact, it’s not much later that ZZS finds out about WKX’s Glazed Armour duplication plan and gets seriously pissed about it. WKX is also genuinely shocked that ZZS genuinely doesn’t approve of his plan. Would true ‘zhiji’, or ‘soulmates’, really have such different worldviews or methods of dealing with things? So the use of the word here REALLY feels like a censorship dodge more than anything else.
And then episode 12 happens. ZZS talks with WKX at the lake, and declares that he will take the first step in exposing his vulnerabilities, because he genuinely wants a relationship and the chance to ‘know’ WKX. This is when I think we can maybe start talking about zhiji. After this, ZZS starts to really pay attention to and become concerned about WKX, and shows that he genuinely understands him. After this point, ZZS clearly demonstrates that he knows when to push and when to back off. And the key is, ZZS does not only understand who WKX presents himself to be, but the true WKX who is actually a good person at heart. The reason ZZS wants WKX to let go of his revenge is not because he thinks WKX should change, but because ZZS believes WKX will be happier if he changes. And as we’re shown in episode 34, ZZS saw through WKX’s heart perfectly.
WKX also starts to understand ZZS’ desires. He’s able to fulfill all of ZZS’ hidden requests, such as the restoration of Four Seasons Manor, and correctly predict much of ZZS’ reactions. In this sense, WKX knows ZZS. However, WKX does not want to be known by ZZS, not really.
WKX is still scared of ZZS finding out about the darkest parts of him. I mean he was planning to die against YBY rather than reveal his identity as Ghost Valley’s master. WKX doesn’t want ZZS to see all of him, doesn’t realize that ZZS already knows, doesn’t believe that ZZS’ love is unconditional. In fact, I believe that a big part of the reason he didn’t tell ZZS about his fake death plan was because he didn’t think he needed to. At that point, he’s rescued ZZS, given him a bunch of disciples, restored Four Seasons Manor… and he believes this will be enough for ZZS. He doesn’t realize that ZZS’s biggest reason for wanting to live is him. To be honest I’m still not sure if he really understands this even in episode 36, when ZZS straight up tells him this, but then WKX goes and sacrifices himself anyway. And to be fair to WKX, he has at multiple points throughout the show asked if ZZS is willing to live for him, and ZZS basically tells him no (although ZZS's thoughts DO change slightly every time he is asked, but WKX doesn't know this).
So rather than soulmates, which implies a kind of instant connection, the way that this relationship develops is actually pretty normal (except it happens in a crazy world with secret armories and death everywhere). WKX and ZZS start off on different pages, they fight about that, but then decide to work through it together because they care enough about each other to let the world get in between them. The more time they spend with each other, they more they learn and understand about each other. Their relationship develops just as any healthy adult relationship develops, and it’s beautiful.
However, there is a ‘fated’ element to this relationship that is unique to show!WenZhou. What do I mean by this? Well, ZZS’ greatest regret is the death of all his martial siblings during his leadership of Four Seasons Manor. ZZS has been alone all this time, both with his leadership responsibilities, and later, upholding the legacy of Four Seasons Manor. Then he meets WKX, who also remembers Four Seasons Manor, and who turns out to be Zhen Yan, his first martial sibling. With meeting WKX, ZZS is also able to accept a disciple in Chengling, and continue the Four Seasons legacy.
WKX’s greatest regret is the loss of his parents and his childhood. Even when he takes revenge on the original Ghosts, he’s left unsatisfied, and he completely drowns in the darkness. Then he meets ZZS, a precious thing from his past which he thought he had forever lost, and he’s able to recall how he was in his childhood. He’s able to recover his past self and his ‘light’.
So these two meeting in the present is like a gift from heaven to recover what they thought they’d lost. It’s their second chance. And boy do they take it.
Bonus: I don’t write smut so I don’t really care about the top or bottom thing, but I do think in the show, ZZS is the more dominant of the two. He is the Lord of the Manor, the ‘shixiong’, and at one point WKX even kneels to him. Plus, throughout the show, when he wants something he just orders WKX to do it, but when WKX wants something he always tries to get it by acting cute. Of course, ZZS is also extremely lenient with WKX, so if WKX really wanted something I don’t see ZZS denying it to him. All that said, unlike book!WenZhou, the show couple aren’t really that competitive, and if anything, seem to compete to give the best things to each other.
Incidentally, WKX is a LOT less flirty in the show than in the books. He does sprout off a lot of love poetry, but as we see in episode 5, he is also someone who generally speaks in an overly flattering manner. To be honest I don’t know if WKX knows how to socialize with people. I mean his role models growing up were: the most vicious criminals of Ghost Valley, the subordinates of the Tragicomic Ghost (many of whom were likely prostitutes), and (probably unrealistic) literature. After the initial pay-attention-to-me-senpai phase, after ZZS starts to reciprocate WKX’s affection, WKX basically stops the smug smirks and the suggestive lines. If anything, it’s ZZS who usually initiates contact, and while WKX does still flirt, he does it in a much softer manner that’s more so an invitation than pushing an unwanted idea onto someone.
And why do these differences exist? Well this one I don’t think I need to go over in detail. The show versions of these characters are basically different people from their book counterparts, so of course their relationships will be different as well. Which one do you prefer?