I think he must have known about his power when he knew Ma Gui, because Ma Gui asked him to tell ZYL about the Guardian Lantern, so must have had reason to believe Zhang Shi would live a really long time. (I had completely forgotten that until I rewatched Zhang Shi's scenes for this post.)

Hmm... But no, that doesn’t really works with the drama’s universe where there is no magic, and everything can be explained by science. :)

Ha, yeah, it's hard to explain Zhang Shi's power by science, either way, I think. *g* That's an intriguing idea, that he never had a body. That would be so weird for his mother!?!

And I agree that he probably didn’t have much influence in raising Zhao Yunlan, because like you’ve said in a comment above Zhao Yunlan notices when Zhang Shi talks through his father and instantly thinks it’s out for character for Zhao Xinci.

Maybe sometimes he managed to stop Zhao Xinci from saying something particularly terrible? Heh. *pets bb!ZYL*