It was during Bao's tenure as lord governor of Kaifeng that Qin Xianglian came with her children to the capital to look for her husband Chen Shimei.

The had been married about 10 years when Chen had bid a tearful good-bye to his parents, wife and children and had set off to take the imperial examination.

That was three years before. Since then, nothing had been heard from him. Meanwhile famine struck; the old couple died of illness and starvation, and Xianglian and he children were forced to go out in search of Chen.

It was not difficult to learn of Chen Shimei's whereabouts in Kaifeng, for he had won the first place of honor in the examinations and married one of the emperor's daughters.

At the place, Chen Shimei refused to see her, but Xianglian won the sympathy of the guard and managed to get inside. Chen still pretended not to know her; for fear that this would compromise his position and happy future. The wife's pleas and the children's tears all failed to move his hardened heart.

Wandering aimlessly in the streets of the capital, Xianglian appealed to a passing courtier and convinced him of the truth of her sad story. The courier invited Chen Shimei to a party at which Xianglian, playing the part of a wandering woman, was made to sing her own story. This only made the errant husband leave the party abruptly.

Worse still, he ordered one of his followers, by the name of Han Qi, to go to the temple where Xianglian and the children had found shelter and assassinate them all. Han Qi, however was moved by their plight and could not bring himself to carry out the order. Instead, he warned them to flee for their lives, while he himself committed suicide. His sword, bearing the heraldry of the imperial son-in-law's palace, fell into Xianglian's hands, later to be used as evidence against Chen.

With all her hopes shattered, Xianglian was driven to desperation and attempted murder in the Court of the Lord Governor Bao Zheng. Now, Bao was famous for his impartial and incorruptible character, and the crimes of the emperor's son-in-law filled him with righteous indignation.

He invited Chen over to his palace for a meeting and, after failing to persuade him to make amends, had him arrested and tried.

The news alarmed the empress and her daughter, Chen's second wife. They came personally to the Governor's court to intervene in Chen's behalf. Much as he wanted to avenge Xianglian for the wrongs she has suffered, this intervention by the empress presented a real problem. Bao offered Xianglian three hundred taels of silver to withdraw the case, with the advice that she should leave the area, bring up the children, but ask them never to become officials.

Xianglian sighed, "In spite of all I have heard about the Lord Governor, he is no exception to the rule that bureaucrats shield one another." Faced with this test of his principles, Bao Zheng has no choice. Fully aware pf danger he courted, Bao ordered Chen Shimei, son-in-law of the emperor himself, to be executed.