Justice Bao

Kenny Ho as Zhan Zhao

Total Cases: 41

Review:
I have to say one thing about this old version of Justice Bao - the story line is unusually great. Every episode is full of twists and interesting plots that made me want to watch till the end (who were the scriptwriter(s)?) Supernatural phenomena were also used to hint to Justice Bao whenever injustice took place.

As the story progressed, Justice Bao also discovered the existence of ghosts and demons. In later episodes, he even solved a case for a ghost (case 39 - The Execution of the Royal Tutor.)

Kenny Ho was great as the quiet and dignified Zhan Zhao and most - if not all the main lead actresses were very talented. They could really cry so convincingly and acted so well. I would have loved to have known more about them - too bad I cannot read Chinese thus do not know the cast. Actors who played villains seemed fixed for the role in all episodes, hence that took out the element of surprise, as the viewers could guess who the culprit would be eventually. Nevertheless, they portrayed their characters excellently.

The emperor from these early episodes was understanding and fair, different from the typical weak and silly emperors in the stories of Yang Warriors and later Justice Bao series. He trusted Bao completely and gave a lot of power to Bao. There were two actors for this role and they both portrayed a more competent emperor for once. For the first time, I did not feel that I wanted to spank this Song emperor (his intelligence must have deteriorated when the series was remade.)

On sets, a lot of fake scenes were used just like those on the stage of a Chinese opera, but the rich costumes more than made up for it. I liked Zhan Zhao's blue robe that was simple yet fitted his tall stature. On a side note, I noticed that any man who wore a certain purple garb would end up as the villain.

The theme song had an exciting tune and was very impressive. The sub-song was also pretty good and sounded romantic - its title was even used as the theme for one of the cases.

The fighting sequences were nothing spectacular. Some were better than others. This might be the only thing that is inferior to the later versions.

Case # 2
Real vs. Fake Scholar

Story:
A beggar boy stopped Bao's carriage to plead a case for his friend whom he called the 'hapless man'. This hapless man was blind, unable to speak and both his hands were crippled.

Bao ordered both beggars to be brought to court. By having the 'hapless man' nodding and shaking his head, Bao found that he could read and write and had taken the imperial examination before. Bao then put a brush in the crippled man's mouth and told him to write his name.

The 'hapless man' wrote his name which happened to be the same name of the current first place scholar. He also motioned that he wanted to file a case against the man of this same name.

Later, Bao had him write out his story as follows:

A year ago, the 'hapless man' was a young healthy man. He came to Kaifeng for the imperial examination and had stayed with a woodcutter in the outskirts of town to save money. One day, he found an unconscious man and discovered that he was bitten by a snake. He then sucked the venom out from the man's leg and brought the sick man to the woodcutter's hut. By coincidence, both men had the exact same names. They then swore brotherhood (let's call the hapless man, scholar1 and the sick man, scholar2) upon learning that each was going to sit for the coming exam. Just a day before the examination, scholar2 became ill with high fever. Scholar1 went to fetch a doctor from another village and managed to save the other's life. However, scholar2 was still too weak to go. Scholar1 ended up going alone. After the exam, he stayed on with the woodcutter, not thinking much of the exam results.

One day, his sworn brother, scholar2, came to inform him with joy that he got first place. Scholar2 had a feast ready for his sworn brother but when scholar1 drank the wine, he found that the wine was poisoned. Scholar1 fought with scholar2, got his eyes blinded from the poisoned wine and hand tendons cut. He escaped eventually because the injured woodcutter came and intervened. It turned out that scholar2 wanted his sworn brother's position, so he had tried to kill the woodcutter (who lived to come back and help scholar1 escape) and planned to kill scholar1 too.

Minister Wang had married his only daughter to the fake scholar without knowing. The daughter was now pregnant.

Bao wanted to test the truth of the story, so he spread a rumour to see the possible fake scholar's reaction. He then ordered Zhan Zhao to secretly protect the two beggars whom he had sent back to their old house. Two men came and tried to kill the 'hapless man' and were caught, but their employer was still unknown.

Bao had a talk with Minister Wang about his son-in-law. Gong Sun had an idea to prove who the rightful scholar was by having the 'hapless man' write the topic of the exam and the answer. Later, Bao asked Minister Wang's son-in-law to do the same thing but the other immediately recited the same answer without having to write it down. Because of that, Bao still had no solid evidence.

The young beggar talked to Bao and gave him another idea. Bao invited Minister Wang's son-in-law again and had him write a charge against the 'hapless man'. Then, he compared the other's handwriting with the imperial exam answer and found that the handwritings were different. He arrested the fake scholar and was about to sentence him to death when Minister Wang's daughter appeared to beg for her husband's life.

*** SPOILER ***
The fake scholar was released, and he went home to pay respects to Minister Wang, his father-in-law. He then killed himself. The 'hapless man' got his rightful position back and the young beggar turned out to be a young maiden who became his sister. She received praise from the emperor for being kind and stayed with the scholar to take care of him.

Rating: 3
The ending of the fake scholar was rather screwy in my opinion. I did not see the point of it or understand Bao's behaviour at all. This was probably the only case so far that I was dissatisfied with. The fake scholar was made to appear as a bright, talented man who only did wrong from a moment's jealousy and over ambition. However, I disagreed that he was a good man in nature. In fact, he would never have been a good asset to the country even if he had passed the exam on his own. I could not say that I felt pity for him for I think he was ungrateful to his benefactors and committed his evil deeds deliberately. That of course could have been due to the acting of the artiste who played the villain. The script highlighted his merits by showing his love for his pregnant wife, which was a rather weak reason for claiming that someone was lovable.

Overall, the episode didn't focus enough on the fake scholar's life but stressed more detail on the crippled man and his beggar friend.

Case # 7
The Execution of the Royal Brother-in-law

Story:
Royal Brother-in-law Pan (Concubine Pan's younger brother) was ordered by the emperor to go to a flood-stricken area to help the people. Instead, he used the money to build a big house, took young women by force to stay with him, forced men to work as slaves to build a new house, and etc.

He saw a beautiful woman on the streets one day and wanted her. He found out that she was the wife of a doctor so he framed the doctor for theft and sent the husband to do hard labour. He then kept the wife in his big house (Red Maiden Tower). The couple had two loyal servants who were husband and wife.

The old male servant went to see his mistress and was beaten till he became crippled. He was left in the forest and was rescued by Zhan Zhao who suggested that he go see Bao in Kaifeng. Zhan Zhao then went to rescue the husband from the labour camp. Next, he helped the wife and another woman who was also a victim of the Royal Brother-in-law.

However, the Royal Brother-in-law found out where their hiding place was. So he killed the friend of the wife and tried to frame the doctor for the crime. The judge was afraid of the Royal Brother-in-law's power, so he agreed to have the doctor executed. The old servant wanted to die for his master, so he knocked his master unconscious and changed his clothes. His master came to though. Yet, the old servant killed himself as an exchange.

The judge (he was not really bad, just a bit of a coward in the beginning) decided to let the husband go and brought the servant's head to show the Royal Brother-in-law instead. The Royal Brother-in-law would not believe him and tried to catch the young couple and their old maid.

The old maid was killed during the escape. The wife was caught and brought to RB again. The husband escaped and met Bao. The wife decided to marry the Royal Brother-in-law to save the judge and her husband. In reality, she brought her friend's name plague (the one who was killed for framing the doctor) to the ceremony and only entered the wedding ritual as her friend's representative. She decided to kill the Royal Brother-in-law and to send him to be her friend's husband in the world of death.

She didn't succeed however. Later, Zhan Zhao rescued her and she reunited with her husband. The Royal Brother-in-law was brought to Kaifeng Court. His father and his sister pleaded with the emperor who finally ordered Bao to cancel the death sentence.

There was also a sub-story of a man who wanted to kill Bao for executing his father. He was used by the Royal Brother-i-law to deter Bao from investigating. Later, he realised that his father had indeed committed the crime and received the proper punishment. He was disappointed that the Royal Brother-in-law would not be executed and lamented of the injustice (his father had raped a woman and killed her, just like what the Royal Brother-in-law did.) He killed himself in front of Bao.

*** SPOILER ***
Bao looked up at the heavens and sighed, "Justice had just died." He then went back to see the emperor and gave many reasons to convince the emperor to let him execute the Royal Brother-in-law. At last, he received permission and went back to court for the final execution. The Royal Brother-in-law would not confess at first, but during his time in jail, he had a conversation with a monk. He then realised his faults, confessed, and gave himself up to the blade peacefully. Royal Tutor Pan tried to stop him but was reproached by his son that he should not have raised his son wrongly.

Rating: 4
The series seemed typical at first, but got more interesting with some twists. The Royal Brother-in-law was very cunning, and the actor portraying the role was excellent despite his looks. He showed his repentance at the end and managed to make me pity him. The main characters showed development and matured as the story progressed. The doctor and his wife were weak in the beginning and grew stronger and wiser after their separation. As a result, they loved each other all the more. The usual bantering between Royal Tutor Pan and Bao was also there. I always find that entertaining and symbolic of the Bao series.

Case # 10
Qiu Niang

Lau Suet Wah as Qiu Niang

Story:
A woman named Qiu Niang rushed to see Bao on the streets to beg for his help. She then fainted from hunger. Bao ordered his men to take her back to Kaifeng Court.

After she became conscious, she told the following story to Bao:

She was the wife of a butcher. They lived in a house with the butcher's mother who bullied her daughter-in-law a lot. The butcher was also a jealous husband and a hot-tempered man and he abused his wife sometimes. That was because the couple was so different in age; while the husband was over 40 years old, the wife was only in her early 20's.

They had a friendly neighbour whose house was right next to theirs. The neighbour was a young doctor named Zhang; he lived with an old blind servant alone in a big house. The doctor had a distant cousin named Zhang San who always looked for a way to get the doctor's money.

Zhang San happened to see Qiu Niang on his way back from the market one day and wanted her. He hired someone to trick her out of the house the following night. Qiu Niang's husband had the flu the day before and when she heard that he had fainted on his way back from work, she rushed out to meet him. In fact, that was Zhang Sun's trick. He lured her into a bamboo grove on a hill and tried to rape her. She ran away and jumped down a cliff. Zhang Sun thought that she was dead so he ran away.

Qiu Niang's husband learned from his mother that his wife had gone out to look for him and immediately went out in the heavy rain for he realised that she had been tricked. He found her unconscious and brought her home. Then, Qiu Niang told him everything. To her disappointment, he would not believe that she was still innocent. He then wanted to kill her but couldn't. After that, he fainted from high fever.

Qiu Niang ran to the backyard and called the young doctor for his help. He woke up and came to see the husband. After that, he visited his patient every day and began to fall for Qiu Niang. However, he still behaved gentlemanly but the husband was jealous to see Qiu Niang speaking to the doctor. His mother was also displeased.

One day, Qiu Niang boiled medicine for her husband and left the pot to tend to her husband. Zhang Sun's servant came and put poison into the medicine pot. He then threw the wrapping paper away. The doctor's blind servant was sweeping the ground nearby and heard footsteps and an exclamation (Zhang San's servant had touched the hot pot and cried out unconsciously). He thought that it was Qiu Niang, so he greeted her but received no answer.

Later, Qiu Niang came and poured the medicine into a bowl. The servant greeted her again, and she told him with a smiling face that her husband was healthy now.

The husband drank the medicine and blood gushed out from his nose and mouth till he died. Qiu Niang's mother-in-law immediately accused her of having an affair with the doctor and of poisoning her own husband. The mother-in-law took her to court. On the other hand, Zhang Sun bribed the official to let Qiu Niang go and put all the blame on the doctor instead. The official fixed the date for the doctor's execution.

The official tortured the doctor until his leg was broken. He was about to torture Qiu Niang too but the doctor didn't want her to be hurt, so he confessed to the crime he didn't commit. Qiu Niang was freed and she returned home but her mother-in-law would no longer receive her.

Qiu Niang decided to travel to Kaifeng to seek justice from Bao.

After listening to Qiu Niang's story, Bao sent Zhan Zhao to investigate the case secretly to verify her statement. Zhan Zhao fought with a local toughie and was arrested. He was put in jail next to the doctor and tried to strike a conversation with him. He found that the doctor was kind and innocent.

Zhan Zhao's friends bribed the official to let him out of jail. On the day of execution, the doctor was led to a platform. Bao came and ordered a stop. He then opened the case again and ordered his guards to fetch Zhang Sun. Zhan Zhao also found the poison wrapping paper at Qiu Niang's backyard. That paper had the name of the store.

Zhang Sun heard the news and was very frightened. He tried to escape but got caught by Zhan Zhao. He was brought to court and tried to shift the blame on his two servants who in turn pointed at him as the boss behind this evil plan. A clerk from the medicine shop was the key witness for this case.

*** SPOILER ***
Zhang Sun was executed on the spot and his two servants were to be executed in the open. The official lost his position and had to do hard labour.

Bao took Qiu Niang home and explained everything to her mother-in-law who finally looked at her daughter-in-law with a better attitude.

Rating: 3 1/2
This was another case without many twists. With due respect to Lau Suet Wah, I don't think she fitted the role of a beautiful woman who could make three men (Zhang Sun, the doctor, and her husband) fall in love with her. She was great in crying scenes and showed the character's strength well. However, she looked too old to be a young woman and too intelligent to be a common housewife.

As the title hinted, the case was focused more on Qiu Niang's character and personality more than the investigation itself. Overall, it was neither boring nor exciting, just in the middle.

Story:
A brother of the emperor (he carries the prince title), the nephew of the 8th Prince, saw a beautiful woman in the streets and ordered a soldier to kidnap her. After that, he ordered a troop to kill off her husband's entire family.

Bao was travelling on the street when his carriage suddenly shook. He ordered a stop for he thought that could be a sign from heaven that something was wrong. He ordered his guards to search the vicinity and they came across a suspicious group of soldiers and a large bamboo basket containing vegetables. It turned out that the container hid a badly injured man. Bao ordered the head soldier to be arrested.

The man they rescued was injured badly and remained unconscious.

The head soldier confessed that he was ordered by his general to arrest the man and to beat him to find out the whereabouts of a maid and a young boy. Zhan Zhao and company went to invite the general to court, but the general cunningly escaped from their hands. Bao ordered his capture and at the same time, to search for the maid and the boy.

Meanwhile, the boy was with the maid who was dressed as a man. He was the only soul who witnessed the killing of his entirely family so he became afraid of anyone in soldier uniforms. Without realising that Zhan Zhao was from Kaifeng Court, the two tried to evade anyone in uniform.

At the same time, the general was almost killed by soldiers sent by the Prince. The general fled and met the boy at an inn by chance. He then wanted to use the boy as his protection. Zhan Zhao and company finally found the maid and brought her to see Bao. However, the boy was missing from the inn.

Later, Bao received a letter from the general to bargain for his safety. Bao sent Zhan Zhao to see the general but only managed to save the boy for the Prince had sent someone to kill the general again. The general died trying to protect the boy.

The boy was too afraid of uniformed people in the court so Bao had to question him in private instead. At the same time, he tried to cure the boy's fear of soldiers.

Bao began the investigation and found that the Prince was possibly involved. To protect himself, the Prince ordered his loyal soldier to be the scapegoat and confessed to all the charges. Bao did not believe that the soldier could be behind all the killings. Meanwhile, the maid went to the Prince's palace to rescue her mistress. The Prince had sent his soldier to kill off the mistress to get rid of the evidence but Zhan Zhao came to rescue both women in the nick of time. He brought them back to Kaifeng and the mother reunited with her son.

Bao wanted the Prince to come to court but didn't know how. He then pretended to be ill and announced his retirement with recommendation to the 8th Prince that the Prince (the villain of this episode) should be the one to receive the legacy of Kaifeng Court.

The 8th Prince smelled something fishy. Gongsun Ce and company begged Bao to reconsider his plan for it was not appropriate to trick the 8th Prince. Bao decided to visit the 8th Prince and told him everything. The 8th Prince then helped Bao after hearing that Bao had both witnesses and evidence.

*** SPOILER ***
The Prince arrogantly came to Kaifeng Court thinking that he was the winner this time. To his surprise, Zhan Zhao and Bao appeared and he was arrested. The court was opened and he was sentenced to die under the Dragon Blade. The 8th Prince arrived to stop the execution but was too late.

Rating: 3
This episode had good potential at first. The story developed fast and seemed to give out many clues. Then, the case seemed to lose its significance since it seemed like a clear cut and dry case. The only difficulty for Bao was how to punish the culprit since he was the prince. I would have loved to see more exchanges between Bao and the emperor on this issue considering the position of the villain prince.

Somehow, all expected excitement seemed to die down towards the end.

The sub-plot on Zhan Zhao's love angle also panned into nothing. The maid who seemed to like Zhan Zhao looked too old and not pretty enough. Somehow, Zhan Zhao is often paired with uninteresting characters.

The members of the victims family were rather weak. The maid constantly cried and unconvincingly too. She became stronger later when she decided to rescue her mistress.

Case # 12
The Fatal Ancient Zither

Story:
Bao passed an abandoned house and saw a sign of wrongly accusation there. He then ordered no further execution of every criminal for the time being. At the execution place, Zhan Zhao had just saved a young woman from the blade of the executioner. Her mother-in-law told Zhan Zhao that the young woman had been framed.

It turned out that she had been accused of having an affair with a servant and had killed him after aborting their baby. Bao investigated and found that she was innocent. A young doctor liked her and wanted her as his wife despite her already having a husband and was currently living with her mother-in-law (her husband was away). He was refused, so he planted a dead unborn baby in her yard to blackmail her later. The servant found out, so he was killed.

Bao punished the real culprit and executed the official who presided over this case. This official was an honest man but decided the case in favour of the doctor because he wanted the young woman's ancient zither because he loved music and collected ancient zithers.

The case ended and Bao returned to Kaifeng. The woman and her mother-in-law decided to travel to Kaifeng in search of her husband who had gone for the imperial exam two years ago. They suffered a lot on the harsh journey and the daughter-in-law dutifully and patiently treated her mother-in-law who fell sick.

At Kaifeng, the new first place scholar of the imperial examination was thinking of his former life. He was in fact the missing husband of the above woman. He had been caught by bandits and had to stay with them for two years. Finally, an army general arrested the gang and rescued him. He followed the general to the capital, took the exam, and got first place. The emperor then matched him with the general's daughter without asking about his past. The man couldn't say no, so he married her although he loved his first wife and missed her very much. Later, he told his new wife and she told her father that she wanted to go back home with him.

The general loved his daughter and didn't want her to live in the country as a second wife, so he sent his trusted secretary to the man's hometown to remove his whole family somewhere else. On surface, he told his daughter and son-in-law that he would send someone to fetch the son-in-law's whole family to live in Kaifeng.

He later found out that the first wife and her mother-in-law were actually now in Kaifeng at an inn. He then bribed the inn owner to make up a story and tricked the two women into believing that the scholar had died. The mother-in-law was sick and the wife had to sell her precious zither to the general's secretary who gave the zither to the scholar and lied to him that his whole family had died from an epidemic. The scholar half-believed but decided to go back to his hometown to visit their graves. The general's daughter wanted to go with her husband (she was a nice lady.) As a last resort, the general burned down the inn to kill both women but Bao rescued them in time. Bao brought the scholar to meet his first wife to see if he was the one who planned the arson. The couple was reunited at last.

Seeing that the scholar was honest and innocent, Bao turned his attention to the general. After some investigations, he invited the general to court. Surprisingly, the son-in-law and his daughter tried to shift the blame onto themselves. The first wife also asked Bao for a pardon (she was very kind and humble. She tried to kill herself once so that her husband could be with his second wife.)

The general was impressed with her generosity and finally confessed his crime. He asked the first wife to be his daughter too. Bao's verdict for him was death...

*** SPOILER ***
The blade came down and chopped off the hair of the general. Bao let him live as a commoner so that he could be with his 2 daughters and son-in-law.

Rating: 4 1/2
I liked the ending for it was rather happy for a change. The first wife and her mother-in-law showed strong love for each other and all the women in this episode seemed strong as opposed to the husband who was rather weak though steadfast in his old love.

Nobody actually died hence the ending in spoiler. The plot showed chemistry between parent-daughter and husband-wife very well. The story flowed smoothly and in fast pace.

The actor who played the general was a versatile artist that I recognise from many Taiwan series. He showed his evil side at the beginning and repentance at the end, making the viewer feel for him.

Story:
On his way back to Kaifeng, Bao stopped at a pavilion. It was a pavilion built to commemorate the memory of a faithful dog. Bao went in and paid his respects to the dog statue and received a bark from that dog. An old couple came to the pavilion but left immediately in fear upon seeing Bao. A sedan carrier from a brothel also passed the pavilion and Bao saw a beautiful courtesan inside.

Bao assumed that the old couple might be in need of help. He found their hut and overheard them talking about their son. As it turned out, their son, Tian Bao, had run away from home causing sorrow to his aged parents. Tian Bao was actually a baby whom the old couple had found at the Pavilion of Gratitude. At first, they were a happy family but later he was teased for being poor. After that, he became irritated with his present conditions. One day, he asked the old couple of his real parentage. He also argued with them and left them cold-heartedly.

Bao promised to find Tian Bao for the old couple.

Meanwhile, Tian Bao was in town and very hungry. He tried to steal a chicken from the brothel but was caught by a rich man who went there to visit the most beautiful courtesan. The courtesan came into the room and made the rich man release Tian Bao. She happened to see half of a jade piece on his neck and found an excuse to leave the room. She caught up with Tian Bao and gave him some money, asking him to wait for her at an inn.

There, she told Tian Bao that she also had another half of a jade piece. That meant that they had been engaged since babies. Because of the flood, their two families had separated. After her parents died, she had to sell herself for the burial money and thus ended up at the brothel (she was still a virgin.)

She then told Tian Bao to study for the imperial exam while she supported him financially. She used all her savings that she had intended to buy herself out of the brothel for Tian Bao. They had a relationship for one day and Tian Bao promised her that he would return to free her.

In reality, the jade piece that Tian Bao had was given to him by his old adopted father who had picked the jade up from somewhere. Tian Bao only used this jade to deceive the courtesan.

Tian Bao went to the capital and took first place. He was coincidentally assigned to be the official at his own town. At this point, he had changed his name and lied about his origins. Passing the Pavilion of Gratitude, he met his adopted parents but would not acknowledge them.

In the meantime, the courtesan was put into a dark room because she refused to sleep with her guests. Her friends helped her escape and she met Zhan Zhao. Upon hearing that he was looking for her Tian Bao, she was afraid and ran away from him. Hungry and tired, she came to the Pavilion of Gratitude and met the old woman who was Tian Bao's adopted mother. She brought the courtesan to see her sick husband. The courtesan stayed with the old couple and treated them as if they were her parents-in-law.

The old man was very sick and the old woman told her daughter-in-law (the courtesan) to go tell Tian Bao about his father. The courtesan met him and he told her to wait for him at an inn. On the other hand, he told the rich man and the brothel of her whereabouts so that she would be caught and brought back to the brothel again. She was made to marry the rich man who had been blackmailing Tian Bao about his background.

The courtesan wanted to meet Tian Bao for one last time to ask him if he really betrayed her. Tian Bao made her believe him again with his sweet words and grabbed the chance to kill the rich man. To save Tian Bao, the courtesan decided to take the blame instead for Tian Bao lied to her that the sentence would be light.

At court, Tian Bao, as the official sentenced her to death. The courtesan was shocked to see the real him. Meanwhile, the old man got better and came to town with his wife to seek their daughter-in-law. They found her in jail and immediately went to see the official to scold him. To their surprise, not only did Tian Bao show penitence, he also invited them to stay at his residence and took good care of them. His actual intention was to keep the old couple inside so they would not reveal his secrets to other people.

Bao visited the Pavilion of Gratitude again. He went to see the old couple but found no one in the house. He went to see the official and suspected that this man could be Tian Bao. At night, Bao often dreamed that the dog spirit tried to stop him from punishing Tian Bao.

Tian Bao secretly had the courtesan moved to the governor's jurisdiction. On the way, the guards stopped in front of Bao's residence and Bao happened to hear her crying despite the long distance between them. Bao had the prisoner brought inside and heard her story. He went back to see the official again and met the old couple who, by now, was pleased with Tian Bao's filial act.

Bao wanted to find evidence so he had a waiter from the inn that Tian Bao had murdered the rich man pretend to blackmail Tian Bao. As he had expected, Tian Bao tried to kill the waiter. However, he still would not admit to his crime. Gong Sun Ce disguised a guard as the rich man's spirit and made him pretend to haunt Tian Bao in prison until he confessed in his own words that he was the real murderer.

He was sentenced to die in front of the crowd.

*** SPOILER ***
Bao threw down the order for execution and the spirit of the dog appeared to destroy it. Then lightning appeared and burned Tian Bao to death.

Bao understood then that the dog did not want this ungrateful person to die by his blade but under heaven's punishment instead.

Rating: 3 3/4
The ending was very satisfying. The plot, although simple, left an impressive moral about gratitude. The only annoying factor was probably the stupidity of the courtesan and the old woman. How many times did they fall for Tian Bao's nice words after being hurt before? On the other hand, their naive nature was realistic and understandable. One could see how easy it was to be deceived by this suave and foxy young man.

Compared to other villains, Tian Bao was not the worst one. However, being left at the Pavilion of Gratitude as a baby, I think the spirit of the dog felt responsible as his guardian. Thus, the heavens chose to mete out their own punishment on this ungrateful man.

The main actor was as excellent as usual in his villain role. He actually had a look that complimented the character. The courtesan was played by my favourite actress who appeared in many cases. She portrayed a woman of ancient times very well.

This was also one of those rare episodes where no good people die.

Case # 16
Real vs. Fake Son-in-law

Story:
A man was fighting with three men and slipped down a cliff. Earlier, he had managed to grab a jade bracelet from his bundle on the ground. Another man holding a hairpin had been looking on from behind a bush. He was the one who had hired those three men to take away the other's jade bracelet.

One night, a mysterious man shot an arrow at Bao through a window. Someone cast a rock at the arrow, making it miss Bao by inches. Zhan Zhao laid a trap and one night found a woman furtively waiting on a roof near Kaifeng Court. Bao released the woman as he assumed that she was there to protect him not to harm him. He sent Zhan Zhao to investigate her.

Zhan Zhao had her sword and finally could identify her real name. Her family name was Wang. She had a younger brother named Wang Ta. Zhan Zhao encountered her in a forest and heard her play a song.

The guards brought in a drunken man into the vicinity and upon questioning; Bao found that he was Mr. Liu (he was the guy with the hairpin) who was the childhood fiance of his friend's daughter. The only puzzle was that tomorrow this lady was marrying another Mr. Liu.

Bao took the young man to see his friend. The two Mr. Liu's met and both confirmed that they were the right Mr. Liu. Each had an evidence of engagement: one with the jade bracelet and another with the hairpin. The one with the jade bracelet was actually Wang Ta. He was a martial artist and had met the real Mr. Liu (the man with hairpin). Liu was worried about his gambling debts and wanted to sell his bride to Wang for a sum of money. Wang was not interested but changed his mind upon hearing of the relationship between the bride's family and Bao. He took Liu to a gambling house and got money for Liu, then took the jade bracelet. On his way, he was ambushed by three men hired by Liu to get the bracelet back. Hence the first scene.

Wang Ta survived the fall from the cliff and went to his supposed bride's home. He originally wanted to use the wedding as a way to get to Bao. He wanted to kill Bao to seek revenge for his father. Many years ago, his father had been sentenced to hard labour, had fallen sick during the sentence and had died. He blamed everything on Bao. The mysterious man that night was actually him, while his sister was trying to prevent him from committing the crime.

Unexpectedly, he actually fell in love with the intended bride and she with him. She in fact knew from the beginning that he was not her rightful fiance but did not tell anyone. She had a younger brother who also liked Wang Ta better than the real Mr. Liu. The boy spied on his father and told Wang Ta the secret questions that his father would ask each man.

The father, who was an official, could not tell which was the real Liu (he had promised an engagement with Liu's father since their two children were young and had not seen the boy since), so he asked Bao for help. Bao opened court and found that the daughter gave contradicting facts to help her lover instead. He had to stop court for the time being. Suspicious of Wang Ta's real identity, he recalled the case of Wang's father and asked the official to dig up the old case for him, as the official was the clerk at the trial then.

Liu had known Wang's real name and immediately assumed wrongly that Wang wanted to kill the official. To get rid of Wang, he dressed as a masked man and took the sword to the official's room and tried to kill the official. The official ran out of the room and met Wang Ta who was immediately framed by Liu. Wang was brought to see Bao.

The official told Bao that the culprit could not have been Wang Ta. Bao agreed with him because Wang used a sabre, not a sword as his weapon. Zhan Zhao and the official's young son tricked Liu into bringing out the sword but failed to catch Liu red-handed.

The official realised that the second man was the real groom for his daughter. In spite of the man's bad points, he had to keep his promise and made his daughter marry Liu. The daughter refused and ran away from home with the maid, crying. Liu followed. Wang Ta who had just been released by Bao also followed them.

Liu had an argument with the maid. He beat her and his fiance wounded his forehead accidentally. He then slapped her and abused the maid. Wang Ta came and almost pushed him off the wall. Luckily, the daughter stopped him in time.

The daughter pleaded to her father not to have her marry the brute. The official's heart was heavy because he, like the others of his household, preferred Wang Ta to Mr. Liu.

Wang Ta escaped from his sister and came to Kaifeng Court to kill Bao. On Bao's desk, he found a record of his father's case, clearly stating that his father had refused Bao's offer to better his health before receiving his sentence. Thus, it was really his father's stubbornness that caused his death eventually.

Wang Ta was devastated upon reading it. The official appeared and gave him his father's letter that he (the official) had received years ago. Bao appeared, and Wang Ta lifted his sabre to strike.

*** SPOILER ***
Wang Ta relented and threw away his weapon. He realised the truth and no longer blamed Bao for his father's death. Mr. Liu, on the other hand, went to the official's house with items to use in the wedding but encountered a cold reception from everyone. He saw that Wang Ta was still there so he went to Kaifeng Court to charge Wang Ta for thinking of killing Bao without knowing that he was too late.

Instead, Bao charged him with trying to kill the official. Wang Ta also presented witnesses from the gambling place showing that Mr. Liu had indeed sold his bride to Wang Ta. Bao then judged that Mr. Liu was no longer the rightful fiance.

Wang Ta received a three-month hard labour sentence from Bao.

Rating: 4 1/2
I found this episode intriguing and light-hearted. The plot twists were there and it was impossible to guess who the actual villain was at the beginning. Every scene was unpredictable. As the story progressed, the audience would find themselves rooting for the fake Mr. Liu and would feel apprehensive for his fate. No one was killed although there was that fighting on the city wall scene that almost sent the main characters on the wrong path.

This was another rare episode with a happy ending.

Case # 19
Mother's Love

Story:
The Yang family (not the Yang family warriors) comprised of a widowed mother, two sons and the first son's pregnant wife. One of the sons had to go to Xi Xia for soldier duty and the mother chose her eldest son to go despite him being a scholar and the youngest son knowing more fighting arts.

The daughter-in-law reproached Madam Yang that she loved the youngest son more and that the youngest son was very likely her real son (she had once heard from her husband when he was drunk that of the two sons, only one was her blood son.) The mother explained nothing but reminded her eldest son of his father's last words. She insisted that he be the one to go to war.

The daughter-in-law went to a remote temple to pray for her husband's safety and disappeared. At the same time, Bao and company rescued a mute maiden from the hands of a eunuch. Zhan Zhao recognised the eunuch as his senior martial brother who was expelled from the school because of his evil martial arts practice.

Bao could find no further information from the mute woman because she was also illiterate. So, he ordered the guards to escort her home to investigate from that end. Near their destination, she was kidnapped again by the same eunuch. He then fed her poison so that she would not escape lest the baby in her womb would die without the required antidote which he would feed to her at intervals. In reality, he practiced an unorthodox martial arts skill that required eating a baby's brain.

The official Duan received a report that a woman's corpse without a head was found. It wore the missing daughter-in-law's dress. Duan then ordered an arrest of the youngest son, charging him for killing his sister-in-law out of lust.

Madam Yang was a wife of the former official of that town, so she was knowledgeable in the law and a very intelligent woman. She tried to argue the case for her youngest son. In spite of her efforts, the official decided her son was guilty. Meanwhile, Bao had come to that town in search of the kidnapped mute woman. It happens that Duan was Bao's student.

Madam Yang heard that Bao was in town, so she tried to see him in order to appeal her son's case to him. Duan and his secretary (whom he called 'Uncle') did everything to prevent her from meeting Bao. However, Madam Yang being resourceful and brave, finally got to see Bao. Unexpectedly, Duan had sent his secretary to see the youngest son ahead of time, lying to the young man that unless he confessed, his mother would be charged with the crime too. Therefore, when the youngest son was sent to see Bao, he confessed of the crime that he didn't commit to help his mother. Bao was still not convinced.

Madam Yang found out from one of the guards that her son had been being tricked. She tried to see Bao again and had to crawl through a dog's hole to get to him. However, when she and Bao went to see that guard, he had already been killed.

Meanwhile, Zhan Zhao had tracked down his senior martial brother and the mute woman. He was caught but later defeated his senior martial brother. The mute woman ran away during the fight. She went back to the Yang cottage and met her mother-in-law. The two women decided to go to see Bao despite it being a late and wet night (so far, no one knew the identity of the mute woman. If she was indeed Yang's daughter-in-law, the youngest son's charge for killing his sister-in-law had to be cancelled.) They finally succeeded in getting inside to see Bao but the mute woman fainted from the poison. She was sent back home.

At the same time, the eunuch whom Zhan Zhao had put in jail was secretly released by the official Duan in exchange for killing the youngest son who was also in the same prison. The eunuch brought the youngest son to the forest and was about to kill him when he learned that the mute woman (she was made mute by his poison, by the way) was related to this young man. He let the youngest son live to take an antidote to the mute woman lest she died (thus he would not get her baby).

Bao heard about the escape of two convicts and had to let Duan issue the order for the hunt. Madam Wang who was the daughter-in-law's mother came to court and accused Madam Yang of being bias. She revealed to Bao that the eldest brother had to work hard all day long, but the youngest brother was the one who had the best of everything. Everyone agreed that the eldest brother must have only been an adopted son. Bao felt disappointed at Madam Yang's behaviour.

Madam Yang told Madam Wang that her daughter was at the Yang home. The two women set foot back towards Yang's cottage and found the Yang eldest son lying in the streets with one arm missing.

They brought him to the cottage and reunited him with the mute woman, who was in fact the daughter-in-law. The youngest son was also there. Madam Wang returned to court again to identify the mute woman as her daughter to Bao but she was killed by an unknown person as soon as she stepped out of Yang's threshold. Madam Yang was devastated for she was afraid that her youngest son would meet yet another charge. The guards were at that moment approaching and she ordered her eldest son to admit to this murder instead.

At court, the eldest son pleaded guilty to Madam Wang's killing and the mute woman was so angry at Madam Yang's idea that she refused to reveal her identity as Yang's daughter-in-law, hence the youngest son was also found guilty. Both men were put in jail.

Bao decided to leave town, but it was only a ruse to reveal the true face of the official Duan. Gong Sun Ce came back and visited Duan's secretary who realised that all was up. He then confessed to Gong Sun Ce that he was the murderer of the guard and Madam Wang in order to frame Yang's youngest son. He then died from taking poison.

Meanwhile, Madam Yang apologised to her daughter-in-law and told her a story. Several years ago, Yang was this town's official. One day, a man was caught. He was mute, illiterate, and had features very similar to the wanted pirate, so Yang executed him. In fact, this man was only a hapless fisherman who happened to look like the pirate. The fisherman's wife was so overcome with grief that she jumped into the river along with her two sons and died. Yang found out the truth later but was too late. He managed to save only the youngest son who was just a baby. Feeling guilty for executing an innocent person, he resigned from his position and died from grief and guilt soon afterward. He had left word to his only son and wife to take good care of the fisherman's young son at all costs to compensate for his one-time mistake. This baby was in fact the current Yang's youngest son. For this reason, the youngest son received the most attention and the best things while the real son had to suffer.

The daughter-in-law then forgave Madam Yang. They went to see Bao again but found that he had left town.

In jail, the eldest brother told a similar story to his brother.

The official Duan realised that Bao was returning and that his plan to harm the Yang family was going to fail. In a fit of wrath, he wore a blood-stained shirt and went to the prison to kill both brothers with his own hands. He was in fact the other son of the dead fisherman. His dead secretary had rescued him from the river and had raised him. He was normally a good and just official (remember that he was Bao's student), but he had tried to destroy this Yang family for revenge and unwittingly framed his blood brother for a murder.

Bao intervened in time and admonished his student who confessed everything. He then called Madam Yang for further details. She refused to talk about her husband's past at first but later told the whole story to Bao. Bao had to bow to her in respect for sacrificing her own son's happiness for that of another person's child.

The two blood brothers of Duan met but Madam Yang refused to charge the official Duan for any crime. The official Duan thanked her for raising his brother, thus the hatred was dissolved.

However, the official Duan felt guilty for using his position for personal revenge. Although Bao could not punish him for lack of evidence, he killed himself.

*** SPOILER ***
In the meantime, Zhan Zhao used all his power to purge out the poison from the mute woman. His senior martial brother came and waited to kill him as soon as he finished (Zhan Zhao would lose his kung fu for three months after the healing.)

He was about to kill Zhan Zhao when Zhang Long and company came along and helped Zhan Zhao who managed to kill his evil senior martial brother at last.

The youngest son lived on with his adopted family. The mute woman gave birth to a healthy boy and everyone lived happily ever after.

Rating: 5
This was another moving episode with many unexpected elements. Madam Yang showed the strong character of a devoted mother who would do anything for her children. I could feel her heartache when she had to send her own son off to war or made him suffer for her adopted son. Her reflection of maternal love really reminded me of my own mother.

I was sorry for the official Duan at the end for he was not really a bad man. Bao must have been disappointed and sad with his student's behaviour. That just showed that Bao was truly the God of Justice for he seemed to be the only one with a clean record.

Case # 20
The Execution of Dragons

Story:
Three masked men in black were chasing a man. They wounded him and he ran into Minister Wang's carrier. Despite Minister Wang's high position, the three men kept fighting with Wang's guards. The man died after uttering the words, 'sheepskin letter', to Wang. The three masked men killed off all of Wang's guards and advanced towards Wang threateningly. Suddenly, Zhan Zhao appeared in time and protected Wang. The three masked men couldn't overcome Zhan Zhao so they ran away.

They secretly returned home. It turned out that they were three brothers of the Wen family. In the past, their ancestor, General Wen, had helped the first Sung emperor build up the empire. Therefore, a portrait of the first Sung emperor was given to them as a testament of Wen's great service to the nation. Thereafter, Wen descendants enjoyed wealth and power based on General Wen's merits. In addition, the present old Madam Wen was the emperor's wet-nurse.

Zhan Zhao escorted Minister Wang to see Bao who was in the vicinity. They returned to Kaifeng and reported to the emperor. The dead man turned out to be a governor of the province where the Wen family was located. Zhan Zhao told Bao that the masked men's martial arts were very high as if they belonged to the royal guards.

In front of the emperor, Royal Tutor Pan disagreed with everything Bao said as usual. To his surprise, Minister Wang was on his side this time. Accordingly, Bao's rank was reduced and he was sent to replace the dead governer because Bao 'supposedly' put too much colour in his report about the masked men.

Later, Minister Wang told Bao of the reason behind sending Bao to that certain province. The emperor wanted Bao to clean up the area from the influence of the Wen brothers but could not say it outright for old Madam Wen was his wet-nurse. Madam Wen had four sons - the first three were bad but the youngest one, who was the most able, was good. The four men had titles in the pugilistic world beginning with the word 'Dragon'.

Bao came to the province and was greeted by the Wen family who knew ahead of his coming due to a letter from Royal Tutor Pan. He met every member and realised the power and wealth that the Wen had. The official of that town was also the Wen's lackey. Bao studied the past cases to see if he could find any unjust ones. At night, he dreamed that a man was burnt alive and had left behind a sheepskin with a message, 'nine corpses, ten lives were burnt because of one sheepskin.'

Bao woke up and questioned the official who reluctantly acknowledged the above incident. He then added that the owner had burnt his own house and everyone in it due to the huge debts that he owed. Bao detected many suspicious points and ordered the official to bring the witnesses to court. He wanted to reopen this case again.

The official consulted with the Wen's second son (he was the most cunning one but he had bad health. He coughed a lot in the series.) At a court session, the official brought two witnesses to see Bao. One was a talkative woman - she was a fake witness. Another was the brother-in-law of the dead man - he had been threatened by the 3rd Wen son beforehand. The Wen sons were looking for a young boy who was the only son of the dead man. It turned out that the boy had been hiding in his uncle's house (the man who was brought to court as a witness).

Bao cleverly questioned the fake witness until she slipped up. He then ordered her to be beaten as a punishment. The official signaled to his people at court, and the fake witness ended up dead under the punishment. Bao tried to question the brother-in-law but he denied knowledge of everything. Bao had to stop the court for lack of witnesses.

To stop Wen's arrogance, Bao posted a notice to accept any case from anyone, hoping that someone would prosecute the Wen family. The third son wanted to mock Bao so he had a brothel owner file a ridiculous lawsuit against the Wen brothers. Bao took up the case and used it to teach the Wen brothers a lesson. The brother-in-law was impressed with Bao's justice so he decided to tell Bao the truth. Unfortunately, he was killed before he got to see Bao. His wife hanged herself out of fear. She had sent the boy out of the house earlier, ordering him to leave town. Zhan Zhao met the boy accidentally and brought him to see Bao. What actually happened was the following:

The boy's father was a dealer in antiques. One day, he had found a sheepskin that he deemed valuable. He wanted to use it to blackmail the Wen family since it had something to do with the Wen's reputation. For safety, he made a copy and gave it to his wife before she visited her brother's house.

That night, after he had seen the Wen brothers, his house caught fire. Everyone died. His wife who was at her brother's suspected that the Wen brothers were behind the arson. She went to see the governor but was caught by the first son. She was killed but succeeded in letting her young son escape. The son went to see the governor who immediately travelled to Kaifeng to meet Minister Wang. On the way, the governor was chased by three masked men (as in the first scene). The boy ran away and hid from the villains. Then, he returned to town and went to see his uncle. He had been secretly living with his uncle since.

He gave the sheepskin to Ba, but it turned out to be damaged because it had fallen into water once. Bao still did not know the message on that sheepskin.

The Wen brothers invited Bao to a party in order to send someone to steal the sheepskin at Bao's residence later. Bao had expected that and had Zhan Zhao wait for the thief. Zhan Zhao caught the thief red-handed who turned out to be the second son. Madam Wen came to court to claim her son but was unable to take him home. She then tricked Bao into letting her give her sick son a robe. It turned out that the robe was a present from the king - a dragon robe - and the wearer could not be hurt so long as he had it on.

Bao ordered Gong Sun Ce to be punished for letting the secret of the sheepskin out. Gong Sun Ce pretended to be angry with Bao. He approached the official to take him to Wen. He told the Wen brothers that he would exchange the fake sheepskin with the real one for a handsome payment. Wen believed him and made a fake sheepskin with the same content as the real one.

During that time, the fourth son fell in love with an opera actress. He wanted to marry her but his mother lied to the girl that he did not want her. The girl left town upon hearing that.

In fact, this was Bao's plan to learn the real message on the sheepskin. After he had read the letter, he understood the motive and ordered an arrest of the Wen brothers. The third son escaped and the first son was arrested. The fourth son came to court to meet Bao and was told of the crimes his brothers had committed. He was saddened and went away in search of his lover who was getting married to her senior apprentice brother. The fourth son wanted to take her away on her wedding night. Her senior apprentice brother fought with the fourth son and accidentally killed his father-in-law. In remorse, he killed himself. The girl chased the fourth son away. He later learned that she too committed suicide.

After consultation, the first and second brothers agreed to admit to their crimes in order to cover up the content of the sheepskin letter. They promised their death in exchange for the burning of the letter. At that moment, Madam Wen arrived in court with the portrait of the first Sung emperor. She claimed that he had told her in her dream that he had pardoned her two sons. Bao in turn kowtowed to the portrait and claimed that the first Sung emperor ordered the two sons to be executed. Madam Wen furiously challenged Bao to demonstrate his claim. Bao used the power from the moon on his forehead to invite the first Sung emperor from the portrait for real, and the spirit of the first Sung emperor entered Madam Wen and ordered that the two sons be executed.

Madam Wen wanted to seek revenge on Bao for her sons' death. She and the youngest son travelled to Kaifeng to see the current emperor. Royal Tutor Pan taught her a trick to accuse Bao. Madam Wen broke her two knees with big rocks and told the emperor that Bao had ordered her to be beaten.

Bao was brought to Da Li Court. Gong Sun Ce offered to use a special acupuncture recipe to prove whether the injury had been made recently or from the supposed beating a month ago. Madam Wen let him heal her but pretended that she still could not walk. Suddenly, she saw spirits of the people that her sons had killed and went into a frenzy. Unconsciously, she got up and chased after the ghosts, proving Bao's innocence in the process. She tried to hit a ghost but ended up running into a pillar. Before she died, she asked her fourth son to seek vengeance on Bao.

The fourth son threw a bomb into Bao's carrier. It turned out that Bao was not in there but the surviving son of the dead family. The boy was badly injured and became unconscious and the fourth son ran away with guilt and grief. He came to a temple and met his lover again. She had wanted to become a nun. Upon meeting him, she left again.

The fourth son realised his sins and went back to Kaifeng to give himself up to Bao. He was jailed. If the boy died, he would be executed.

Bao pitied him and found his lover for him and let them marry in jail in order to produce an heir for Wen. The new Madam Wen was finally pregnant, and the fall was drawing near (the fall was the time criminals were to be executed).

The third son captured Gong Sun Ce and with the help of the fourth son, Zhan Zhao managed to rescue Gong Sun Ce. The third son killed himself upon defeat.

*** SPOILER ***
The boy died and the fourth son was to be beheaded. The fourth son apologised to the boy for the last time and put his head under the blade. At that moment, the boy woke up, and the fourth son did not have to die.

Rating: 5 ++
Among almost 20 cases that I have watched so far, this is my most favourite case. From the first to the last scene, there was no shortage of exciting and unexpected elements.

At first, the case seemed typical with the familiar plot of a rich family bullying commoners. However, the similarity ended there for the cause of the Wen brothers crimes was rather honorable they were committed to protect their family's reputation. In addition, one of the four sons happened to be the innocent one who was later pulled into the web of crime his brothers had created.

The plot also gave further depth to the story by introducing a conflict for the male protagonist (the fourth son) and his choice between being a righteous person and a filial son. The sub-plot on the fourth son's romance was equally touching and gave this poignant case another remarkable dimension.

The actor who played the fourth son gave his best performance here. He had appeared in some other cases in villain roles. In my opinion, he had a versatile look although I think he acted more natural as the good guy. Bao and Gong Sun Ce also displayed their brilliant minds and ready tongues in battles with the Wen family. Their tactics reminded me of Zhuge Liang's strategies in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Bao even once mentioned this sage's name during a court session.

Although the first three Wen brothers were villains in this case, one couldn't help but feel impressed with their love for one another. They showed a strong bond of brotherhood and genuine regard for their family.

Supernatural element was involved but was done within good reason and did not go too overboard. Some good kungfu sequences were shown although my number one choice would still be those that appeared in the next case, 'The Butterfly Dream'.

Overall, the story line was very interesting and flowed smoothly. Fighting sequences were also better than most cases. Bao, Gong Sun Ce and Zhan Zhao each shone in different areas, showing their good teamwork against the criminals. Romance, intrigue, vengeance, justice - they were all there in this case. And to top it all, it had a happy-ending. What more could one want from this perfect episode?

Story:
A woman was accused of cheating on her husband and was tied to a door and thrown into the river. She denied the charge and tore her handkerchief in half in front of her husband as a sign of severing their love. The husband followed her to the river, tried to rescue her (he was still in love with her) and tied one half of her handkerchief onto her bleeding wrist. The current became stronger and he lost hold of her. He saw her fall off the waterfall and thought that she had died. After that, a scholar approached the husband and explained that everything was a misunderstanding. The husband then realised that he had wrongly accused his wife but it was too late.

Seven years have passed and the husband had become a drunkard from sorrow. He also abused his only son - the child his accused wife had. One day, the boy heard that someone had seen a woman that looked like his mother in Kaifeng, so he ran away from home in search of her. At Kaifeng, he weakly ran into Zhan Zho, a highly-ranked general and his wife. He fainted from hunger and Zhan Zhao brought the boy to Bao who decided to help the boy find his mother.

The boy went to visit the general's wife, who was in fact his mother. Seven years ago, she was rescued by this general and fell in love with her saviour. They married happily but she still had the same handkerchief tied to her wrist.

She found out that the boy was her son and told her current husband about her past. He became angry upon learning of her crime of cheating on her husband. She was sad and decided to leave him to be with her son. She brought the boy to an inn in town and decided to stay there for a while.

In the meantime, two men, the first husband and the scholar, came to claim the boy as their son. They told Bao the story as follows: The first husband and his wife loved each other very much but had no child. The husband suspected that he was impotent but his mother would not believe him, so she wanted him to divorce the wife and marry another girl. To keep his marriage, he had asked the scholar whom he had rescued earlier to sleep with his wife and beget a son for him. The scholar first refused but upon seeing the wife's beauty, fell in love with her and agreed.

The wife did not however. She warned her husband that their marriage life would not last long if he insisted she commit adultery because he would get jealous as time passed. The husband would not listen and he drugged her (he was a doctor.) He then had the scholar rape her. After that, the wife became pregnant and had a son but the husband started to feel jealous and doubtful of his wife's emotion for him. Hence, the accusation episode.

The scholar by now had a family of his own but no child so far. So, he wanted to claim the boy as his heir. Bao told both of them to stay in town for further investigation. Both men coincidentally stayed at the same inn as the general's wife. That night, the scholar met the woman accidentally and used force to take her away with him. She stabbed his chest with her hairpin in frenzy, and her current husband (the general) found her in that state. He put his family's special medicine on the injured man's wounds and left him in the streets, then took his wife home.

Before that, he had ordered his trusted soldier to take the boy away from his wife for he could not bear to see her go away. The boy was kidnapped by a masked man. Zhan Zhao met them and fought with the kidnapper and wounded the other's right arm. He brought the unconscious boy who had fallen from the horse back to Bao.

The general and his wife made up. She wondered where her son could be but the general denied any knowledge. They later heard that the boy was at Bao's, so they went to visit him. There, they met the first husband who was curing the boy. The first husband was stunned seeing that his wife was now another man's wife. He decided to keep their relationship a secret.

The scholar woke up and wanted to seek revenge on the woman. He went to court and tried to accuse her. Instead, he lost the case because he was the one who tried to abuse the woman first. Still, full of wrath, he left an insulting note on the general's wall. The general later went to see him, heard something vile about his wife, lost his temper, and killed the scholar with a small ball that he had with him (the general and his soldier were experts in playing ball.) Bao suspected the general of the murder.

Zhan Zhao had a ball game with the soldier who was his good friend and found by accident that this friend of his was in fact the masked man he had wounded earlier. He reported this to Bao.

The first husband grieved about his lost wife and became a half-crazy man. He tricked the wife into an isolated house and drugged her. Then, he tied her and beat her. The little boy came to help his mother and was knocked out by the father. The general and his soldier came and rescued the woman when the first husband tried to force poison into her mouth. The general then ordered his soldier to kill the first husband. The boy woke up and heard him.

Later, he told Bao everything and accused the official for murdering his father. Bao arrested the soldier who confessed that he alone did it all. Bao didn't believe that he did everything without the general's order, so he invited the general to court for the hearing.

Zhan Zhao then set a trap, forcing the general to show his tiny ball and his kicking skills. The ball matched the scholar's fatal wound. The general didn't deny that he killed the scholar but would not admit that he ordered his soldier to kill the doctor (the first husband). Bao then ordered the execution of the soldier to make the general confess. To save his soldier's life, the general finally announced that he was behind both crimes. He then requested Bao to let him go back home and see his wife for the last time. Bao refused.

*** SPOILER ***
The soldier fought with the Kaifeng Court guard to let his master escape. He then cut his own head using the tiger blade. The general went home to play a game of ball with his wife for the last time. When Zhan Zhao came to arrest him, he killed himself with a sword (a very awesome scene). His wife lost her senses and waited to see a butterfly that she believed her husband (the general) would come back as. When the flowers bloomed, her son came back from the garden and gave her three butterflies (as three husbands?).

Rating: 5 plus
This is a masterpiece episode! The story was interesting and although teary at times, it was far from the typical love tale and not dull at all. A bonus of this episode would be the many interesting scenes of ball kicking as a way of martial arts. The plot had many twists and would keep the audience guessing until the end. In addition, this series showed the progress of detective work and the brilliant deductions of Bao and company.

The ending was very poignant and impressive. I really felt sorry for the woman and her son. They were victims of the love and jealousy of three men. Personally, I think the real culprit was the first husband's mother. Without her narrow-mindedness, this tragic story would not have happened. If she had believed her son and let him live with his wife happily, her son would have been alive and a lot of people would not have died.

The actress who played the wife was very beautiful and talented. I loved all the episodes that she appeared in. It would be great if anyone can tell me more about her. All the other artists gave topnotch performances and I would never forget the scene where the general died. It clearly showed his character and personality.

Case # 25
The Example Widow Story

A horse pulling a wagon stopped in front of Kaifeng Court. Bao arrived and realised that the horse wanted to seek some justice. At the back of the wagon laid the dead body of a man. Bao ordered Wang Chao and Ma Han to go with the horse to its house. A young man in the crowd saw the corpse and turned pale. He hastily walked away. At the dead man's house, the two detectives found a broken wine bottle that they suspected contained poison. They also discovered a jar full of gold coins underneath a floorboard. They returned to Kaifeng Court to report their findings to Bao. (The interactions between the two men were hilarious.)

After they had gone, the young man who was earlier in the crowd and a young woman entered the house. The young woman seemed very sad. She returned home and informed her mother that 'father' had died. Her mother was not surprised. She coldly told her that her husband had died more than twenty years ago and admonished her daughter to not forget their status in town. This middle-aged lady was called the Example Widow and had received a signboard from the emperor, honouring her status. She took her fame seriously and kept her behaviour in check at all times. She would not even let her daughter marry or befriend any men.

At a well, the young man questioned the young woman about the wine he gave her and the rat poison that she had asked him to buy for her. Irritated, she sarcastically admitted that she had killed her 'father'. The young man believed her, and to protect her, he went to court and confessed to the murder of the unknown man. Zhan Zhao recognised the dead man as a former robber who had disappeared from the martial world many years ago. There was also a report of a masked man who had robbed a jar of gold coins from a rich merchant.

Upon questioning the young man, Bao found that he was a waiter at a wine shop. Because of the lack of evidence, Bao released him.

Meanwhile, the town bully was trying to blackmail the Example Widow. He wanted to marry her daughter in exchange for his silence because he knew that the dead man was in fact her husband and that he had died because of her. The widow chased him away. Her daughter wondered if her mother had really killed her 'father' and began to worry.

The town official was also concerned about this case because he was the one who recommended that the widow receive her honourary title. If the dead man turned out to be the widow's real husband, then his town would lose face and his work record would be blemished. The widow strongly denied to him that the dead man was her husband. The official suspected that there was more than met the eye but did not want to investigate further. In fact, the dead man had once brought her to court on this issue, but the official would not listen to him and ordered him to be beaten hard for trying to taint the good name of the Example Widow.

One night, the widow had a nightmare. She saw the spirit of the dead man who was indeed her husband and unknowingly confessed to her daughter that she was the one who had poisoned him. The daughter was devastated upon hearing it.

Meanwhile, the bully relentlessly pursued the widow and her daughter. The daughter wanted to negotiate with him because he had as evidence, her jade piece which he had taken from her by force. The jade piece matched the one that the dead man had on him. The widow chased him away again.

Bao came to town to begin investigations. To retain the fame of the town, the official ordered his guards to kill the bully to silence his mouth about the widow's past. At the same time, Zhan Zhao and Co. were also hunting this man. Zhan Zhao rescued the bully when he was about to be murdered. He brought the bully to court and finally, the truth was revealed.

The widow admitted that the dead man was her husband. Twenty-five years ago while she was pregnant, he had left taking all her money. That was why she hated men and did not wish her daughter to marry anyone as she did not want her to end up like she did.

Her last request to Bao was to personally see to the taking down of the signboard honouring her. Bao granted her wish. She then asked the waiter to take care of her daughter.

*** SPOILER ***
The widow walked towards the signboard and ran into the post. She killed herself while recalling her past. The widow's daughter lived with the waiter happily ever after.

Rating: 2 1/2
The case was really simple. It seemed so clear from the start that the widow was the killer. One flaw was that many people seemed to know that the widow's husband was still alive, yet they acted as if it was nothing. One would have thought that they would rather help conceal this fact to keep the town's reputation than to speak out for a good cause instead of tossing back and forth between telling the truth in parts and being ignorant in other parts. The hatred that existed between husband and wife was really the cause of everything. In the end, both of them died and that only made their daughter a true orphan.

The scenes at the beginning were very promising at first with the faithful horse bringing its dead master to see Bao. However, the story got duller as the mystery revealed itself. An interesting side story was the bickering between Wang Chao and Ma Han. We learned then of their personalities and understood that they were humans after all - too bad that their interactions disappeared soon after. Otherwise, they would have livened up the story a bit.

This episode was rather peaceful with only one dead man compared to the other cases. I would have preferred more twists to make it more intriguing though.

Case # 28
Seeking Relative

Story:
An old eunuch was allowed to retire. He was a friend of Minister Wang and Justice Bao and told them that he wanted to spend the rest of his life looking for his family. Before he had become a eunuch, he got separated from his pregnant wife thirty years ago. He had lost news of her since.

Bao sent Zhan Zhao to help the old eunuch. They finally found the midwife who recalled that the wife had died upon giving birth to a son. A man who was an acrobat had adopted the baby. The midwife recalled that the man had already had one boy with him. Therefore, the eunuch's son should be the second son of the new family.

The eunuch went to see the man with hope. In the meantime, the said man returned to his home after a slight injury during a show. He had two sons and one daughter - they were all adopted by him. The second son was not healthy; therefore, he was not taught kungfu. He loved his sister but she liked the eldest brother (Vincent Jiao).

The eldest brother went up the mountain to find some medicine for his brother. He rescued a middle-aged woman named Bai He (= white lily) from committing suicide. She was in fact the wife of his adopted father. Bai He had run away with another man, taking her two-year-old son with her; therefore, her husband hated her very much and pretended that she no longer existed.

Upon seeing that his eldest son hadn't come back yet, the father went after him. The second son was then alone in the house. The eunuch and Zhan Zhao arrived at his house and the eunuch claimed that the second son was his long lost son. The eunuch brought the young man to his house and the second son enjoyed the luxurious life his father gave him. He then informed his adopted father who had returned to the cottage. To his disappointment, his adopted father told him that he was not the eunuch's son. His brother (Vincent Jiao) was actually the one. What happened was that this old man had a son with Bai He, but because he was mad at her for leaving him with another man, he would not recognise her or her son as his family. Hence, Vincent's character became the first son that led to the eunuch's mistake.

The second son begged his adopted father to lie for him for he did not want to return to the poor life. The old man refused and the second son knocked him down and hid him in a woodshed. The young man then stabbed his adopted father and burnt the woodshed. In the process, his jade pendant fell to the ground.

Vincent's character returned home and found no one. He went out to search for his father and met his brother who knocked him down from the back. His unconscious body was put next to his adopted father's corpse with a bloodied knife in his hand. Before the fire could burn everything down, Zhan Zhao arrived with the second brother and the sister.

Vincent's character was immediately accused of being the murderer. Zhan Zhao tried to arrest him but he escaped. The eunuch's housekeeper found a half piece of jade pendant at the burnt woodshed and brought it to the eunuch. That jade was a gift from the emperor to the eunuch at his retirement and the eunuch had given it to his 'son'. The eunuch suspected that his own son was the murderer but would not reveal it. He felt guilty for not having being with his son for thirty years and wanted to compensate for everything.

On the other hand, Bai He picked up the other half jade from the woodshed and gave it to Vincent's character who was taking refuge with her. He took it to a jade expert who identified it as a valuable item from the palace. He had met the eunuch before; each had a good impression of each other at first sight. Without realising the truth, both had formed a bond of friendship.

Zhan Zhao was hunting for Vincent's character while Bao investigated and found evidence of the jade pendant. Bao brought it up with the eunuch who confessed that he was the murderer. Bao did not believe him and released him. The eunuch went home but his 'son' would not let him enter the house. He had to live with a beggar he once helped and resorted to begging for a living.

The 'son' hired a killer to kill the eunuch and make as if he killed himself with remorse. Vincent's character rescued the eunuch in time. The eunuch still would not turn against the young man whom he believed to be his son. In remorse, he drank poison. The killer came to kill him again and revealed to him that the man who sent him was not the real son of the eunuch. Bai He managed to hurt him with her poison. It turned out that he was the man whom she had run away with many years ago. He in turn abandoned her, so she wanted vengeance on him all this time.

Zhan Zhao arrested the killer and his hirer and brought them to court. The eunuch was puzzled with the words of the killer. Under the guidance of Bai He, they eventually figured out that Vincent's character was the eunuch's real son. The eunuch went to court and prosecuted his fake son. The fake son was executed.

Vincent's character got married to his (martial) sister.

Rating: 3

The capturing point of this case was the encounter between Kenny Ho as Zhan Zhao and Vincent Jiao as the main character. One could see Vincent's talent in the role of a swordsman. It was no surprise that he would become Bai Yu Tang, one of the 5 rats, in the new version of Justice Bao and finally take the role of Zhan Zhao.

Having said that, Vincent was rather woody outside his excels in sword display. Nevertheless, it was nice to see how he has improved on his acting in the new Justice Bao.

The plot had some flaws such as the villain was supposed to be a weak man and did not know kungfu. Yet, he could accurately hit the pressure points on his father and his brother who knew martial arts. The actor in this role did not give a very good performance here. He tended to make sulky faces to show his evilness. I would say that he was more suited to play the good guy like the fourth son in 'Execution of Dragons'.

My favourite character from this case had to be the eunuch because he was such a sweet, dear old man. He could smile in any situation. The scene where he trained himself to be a beggar was rather funny. Although his downfall was sad, his lively character convinced the audience that his life was not that bad.

Case # 29
The Plum Flower Murderer

Story:
This story happened in winter. A man was found dead by a silver hairpin stabbed into the back of his skull. Plum flower petals were left on his body and his two servants were killed.

Bao thought that the crime could be about revenge and since the dead man was known as a womaniser, he began investigation by trying to find out about the victim's past women. It was also the time to pay respects to his friend's one-year death anniversary. Since he was busy with the case, he sent Zhan Zhao there instead. Zhan Zhao met the daughter who was also a doctor like her father. Her name was Xiamei. She was in fact the murderer. Her old servant (who pretended to be a hunchback), a skilled martial artist, helped her with the crime.

Xiamei discovered that her father was not her blood father. Nonetheless, she acknowledged him as her real father and still wanted to avenge him. She refused to forgive her mother for causing his death.

One year ago, her father had died of grief because her mother played around with other men. The dead man was one of them. So, Xiamei swore to get rid of all the men who gave her mother a bad reputation. Later, she killed another man who was also her mother's lover and the one who had picked on her younger brother.

Both siblings had misunderstood that their mother was a loose woman. The son was angry at his mother's behaviour, so he refused to go to school and instead made friends with bad people. He went to burgle a house one time and was caught by a middle-aged man. His sister came to ask the man for pardon. The man eventually let them go but the brother still would not change his behaviour.

Their mother felt bad for her children and decided to leave town to start a new life. She had pawned some jewellery with an evil broker and now wanted them back. However, that broker was a crook and had used disappearing ink on the contract; therefore, she had no evidence when she wanted to get her goods back. In wrath, she tried to stab him without thinking and injured a servant instead. She was then put into jail.

Xiamei wanted to help her mother, so she promised the crook that she'll stay with him if he would not charge her mother for this crime. Zhan Zhao tried to change her mind but was disappointed by her stubbornness.

At that time, the middle-aged man whose house was almost burgled by Xiamei's brother came to help. He bribed the crook to retract his accusation and to leave Xiamei alone because he suspected that Xiamei was his lost daughter.

The mother got out of jail and went to thank him. She discovered that he was her first husband. Twenty years ago, she had eloped with him despite already been engaged to someone else; got pregnant but he had left her to seek his fortune with a promise to come back. Later, she heard that he had married a rich man's daughter.

In sorrow she tried to drown herself and was rescued by her former fiance, who was the doctor. She then married him out of gratitude. Unexpectedly, her fiance only wanted to have her so that he could torture her every day. She then began to drink and behaved improperly.

Her second husband however, loved her daughter, who was Xiamei, very much. He meant to make her regard him as her real father, even if she would learn the truth later.

Xiamei prepared to kill the crooked broker. She talked it over with the old servant and her mother overheard her. To prevent her daughter from committing another crime, she dressed herself as her daughter and went to see the crook instead.

She tried to kill him but lacked knowledge of where the dead acupoint was, so was caught. The old servant came and helped her. He managed to kill the crook's two guards but was injured badly. The mother finally killed the broker and the servant died. Xiamei arrived and before she could do anything, Zhan Zhao came.

The mother was arrested. She tried to confess to the other two crimes but her information didn't match the truth of the case. Xiamei came to Kaifeng Court and confessed. The mother then bit her tongue and killed herself to shift all the blame onto herself.

Bao didn't believe that the mother committed all three crimes, so he wanted to investigate further. The real father was a well-known rich man. He tried to save his daughter in many ways and she at first denied the charge because she was worried about her younger brother's future. Finally, she confessed for the sake of Bao and Zhan Zhao.

She was to die.

*** SPOILER ***

The younger brother finally turned over a new leaf and became a good boy. He came first in the Imperial Exam like his sister had hoped. Xiamei acknowledged her real father and then she killed herself.

Rating: 3 1/2

The case was open and shut for the audience would know who the culprit was from the beginning and could foresee the outcome. The story was also draggy in some parts and rather cheesy (the younger brother's ending for example). However, to compensate for the plot, the human relations were very interesting to watch.

Xiamei's last scene was a bit unexpected. It was a sad episode - one of the so-called teary episodes.

Case # 31
The Mermaid

Story:
A scholarship-seeking young man named Zhang Zheng was rushing to the capital to take the exam that would determine the next scholar. On his way, he passed by a lake where he saw some people about to kill a fish they had caught. The kind-hearted Zhang Zheng bought the fish from them and returned it to the lake. Unfortunately for him, some bad guys saw his money and robbed him of everything. They also threw him into the lake. But he was saved by a mysterious (for now) energy which pushed him to the land.

Zhang Zheng woke up several days later and thus missed the scholarship exam. As a result, he suffered from much misery. Another interesting fact was that 20 years ago, his father and Official Jing from Kaifeng had prearranged a marriage between their kids. Today, however, Jing had already granted his daughter's hand in marriage to the new scholar, and refused to recognise Zhang Zheng. The fish that Zhang Zheng had saved transformed itself into an identical Miss Jing and comforted Zhang Zheng for the moment. She then gave him a valuable pearl. (It plays an important role later.)

Meanwhile, a demon named Lao Lao and her disciple were out to suck the spirit out of Justice Bao. They set up "paper people" using magic. Fortunately, Zhan Zhao was able to take care of them. Unable to get Justice Bao, the demons proceeded on to their next victim, the new scholar.

Zhang Zheng was supposed to meet Miss Jing (the mermaid) in the garden. There, he discovered the dead scholar but she told him not to make a sound. Then, the real Miss Jing showed up and had Zhang arrested for being saucy with her. In order to avoid the blame that the new scholar had died in his house, Official Jing sent Zhang to Kaifeng Court and accused him of the murder. Zhang called Miss Jing as his witness, and of course, the real Miss Jing had no idea what he was talking about. As Zhang was being transported back to the court, the mermaid kidnapped Zhang from Zhan Zhao, which got Bao into trouble because he had lost the prisoner. The emperor set a 7-day limit for Bao to capture Zhang.

The mermaid of course had good intentions for Zhang. However, she could only be around for as long as the elder tortoise permitted her. He was against her being on land, so she disappeared for a while. This was really bad for Zhang Zheng because he constantly encountered 2 versions of Miss Jing. One minute she was nice and the next she locked him up. After a while, he lost any trust in her and only trusted Justice Bao. Official Jing had some beef with Bao, so he purposely locked up Zhang Zheng so that Bao would get into trouble after 7 days.

Meanwhile, the experienced Bao thought that there was connection between the paper people and the murder of the new scholar. Zhan Zhao rushed to the paper factory that night, but Lao Lao arranged for more voodoo and captured Zhan Zhao. She wanted to use him to get Bao's spirit. At the same time, Lao Lao's disciple fell in love with the mermaid (in Miss Jing's form) and wanted her as his wife.

The mermaid escaped from the elder tortoise and went to inform Bao that Zhang was indeed in a cell at Jing's house. She led Bao and Co. into the house, but she was intercepted by the elder tortoise. Without a guide, Bao was accused of entering Jing's house unlawfully. His three executioners were sealed as punishment. As in the case of Zhang Zheng, the real Miss Jing could not be Bao's witness.

Later, the real Miss Jing was kidnapped by Lao Lao's disciple as he mistook her for the mermaid. She was not affected by the evil magic because she had the mermaid's pearl. (Zhang returned the pearl to her in one encounter. He was angry that she had ordered his arrest.) She met Zhan Zhao who had lost his strength and tried to give the pearl to him for it had magic powers that could restore his strength. Instead, Zhan Zhao told her to keep it and escape from there to help Bao find Zhang.

Miss Jing was impressed with his loyalty for Bao, so she got away with the help of Zhan Zhao. She fell off the cliff trying to escape from Lao Lao and her disciple. The little tortoise found her and brought her to Kaifeng and she finally met Bao. As soon as Bao heard about Zhan Zhao, despite that day being the seventh day, Bao opted to rescue Zhan Zhao first before taking care of Zhang's business.

Bao and Co. went to the paper factory. They found the unconscious Zhan Zhao who was in fact the fake one. The little tortoise found the real Zhan Zhao and brought him to Kaifeng.

The mermaid, on the other hand, impersonated as Miss Jing and went back to Jing's house and pretended to fall ill. The elder tortoise followed her and they made a bet on Official Jing's love for his daughter. The elder tortoise presented himself as a doctor and told Jing that he had to release Zhang and give him his daughter's hand in marriage, otherwise she would die. Jing did not believe at first but upon seeing his daughter's condition worsen, went to release Zhang. To his surprise, Zhang refused to come out unless Bao came there personally and cleared his name. The official was angry but could do nothing.

In fact, Jing was in cohorts with Royal Tutor Pan for Bao's downfall. Pan lured Jing with a minister's position if he could get Bao was out of their way. However, after thinking it over, Jing chose his daughter over fame and a high-ranking position. He went to see Bao to confess and invited him to his house.

Lao Lao ambushed Bao on the way, but the elder tortoise knew beforehand and tricked her instead. The fake Zhan Zhao then returned to his real form - Lao Lao's disciple.

Royal Tutor Pan double-crossed Jing and shifted all the blame onto him. Official Jing lost his position and had to leave Kaifeng. He was however allowed to arrange a wedding ceremony for his daughter in 7 days. The mermaid helped bring the unconscious Zhan Zhao and the little tortoise to Kaifeng. At the court, she encountered the real Miss Jing. The two identical maidens puzzled everyone there.

At first, each woman claimed herself to be the real Miss Jing. Then later, they both denied it. The mermaid felt guilty for impersonating the real Miss Jing, and the real Miss Jing did not want to marry Zhang but instead wanted to follow her father back to his hometown.

Lao Lao then somehow entered Kaifeng Court and poisoned Official Jing. The mermaid's pearl could heal either him or Zhan Zhao. But Official Jing told his daughter to give the pearl to Zhan Zhao instead. He then died.

The mermaid revealed the truth about her identity to Zhang, but he still wanted her. She realised then that their love was impossible, so she left him. Before that, in a moment of thoughtlessness, she had helped Lao Lao imprison the elder tortoise in a magic ring. To help the elder tortoise, she sacrificed herself.

*** SPOILER ***
Zhang became the new scholar at the next examination and married Miss Jing. On their wedding night, the little tortoise informed them that the mermaid was suffering in her cave prison as a punishment from heaven, and Bao was the only person who could help her.

The young couple then went to ask for Bao's help. Despite the possible risks on his life, Bao went into the cave and used the moon mark on his forehead to release the mermaid's spirit.

Rating: 4
This is another excellent episode. The story was very interesting with typical angles of confusion between two identical persons.

The bond between Bao and Zhan Zhao was an impressive point in this case. There was this unforgettable sentence which Zhan Zhao uttered: "The world can lose Zhan Zhao, but the world cannot afford to not have Justice Bao." Conversely, Bao was willing to risk his life for Zhan Zhao. It showed that Bao really had good relationships with his co-workers.

Using a male artist for the role of the female demon Lao Lao was amusing and rather different. The actor in that role did an outstanding job. The actress portraying the mermaid was good as usual although her hairdo was a bit annoying. The elder tortoise's reappearance in this case was as funny as ever. All in all, a strong cast.

On the other hand, the fighting sequences were rather inadequate since they were just mainly explosions and flying around. Nevertheless, the scene which Bao rescued the mermaid was pretty awesome for we got to see the power of the moon mark on his forehead.

I was a bit disappointed that the mermaid did not end up with Zhang Zheng since the two loved each other. How did Miss Jing feel marrying a man who was in love with someone else that looked exactly like her? Some of the romantic scenes between Zhang and Miss Jing on this issue were lacking here. Moreover, I don't understand why the heavens had to punish the mermaid. She did everything as a sign of gratitude after all.

Case # 32
Di Qing

Story:
Di Qing was a great general who protected the country from Xi Xia in the west while Justice Bao took care of Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty. Both were treasures of China.

Xi Xia had to get rid of Di Qing before it could overthrow China, so it sent its general with his sister to the Central Plains to frame Di Qing, who at the moment had received an edict from the emperor to return to Kaifeng for his arranged wedding.

On his wedding day, the bride was kidnapped without anyone the wiser. The Xi Xia general's sister took her place. She happened to have the same look as Di Qing's bride. In the bedroom, she tried to assassinate Di Qing but was not his match, so she lured him outside and escaped. When Di Qing went back to his room, he found the dead body of his bride (the real one) with a note written in blood on the wall framing Di Qing and accusing him of being a traitor.

Di Qing was house arrested and went to the Court of Da Li whose head official turned out his father-in-law. Enraged with his daughter's death, he almost executed Di Qing right then. Bao tried to reason with the emperor for he believed in Di Qing's innocence but Royal Tutor Pan was against him for a personal reason. It turned out that Pan had a nephew who was the second in command under Di Qing. If Di Qing was found guilty, Pan's nephew would then become the first in command of the entire army instead.

Meanwhile, a young woman who turned out to be the younger sister of a soldier under Di Qing came and tried to kill Di Qing for revenge. It so happened that she misunderstood that Di Qing had ordered for her brother's death for no apparent reason. After hearing Di Qing's explanation and the real cause, she began to have a better impression of him (her brother had raped a woman and killed her, thus breaking army rules.)

Di Qing's aunt was the 8th Prince's wife. She went into the palace to ask the emperor to give the case to Bao instead. On her way back home, she was kidnapped by the Xi Xia general and his sister to use to blackmail Di Qing for his loyalty.

Di Qing heard the news in jail and broke out from prison to rescue his aunt who was like his mother. The young woman also followed him around because she began to like him. They travelled across the desert to Xi Xia.

In the meantime, the emperor sent an edict to arrest Di Qing. Pan added more fuel to the fire by telling the emperor that Di Qing had now gone over to Xi Xia's side.

The general brought Di Qing's aunt to see the prince of Xi Xia and she tried to commit suicide but was only severely injured. The general suggested to the prince to dress up like Di Qing (he always wore a special mask in battle) to make Song believe that Di Qing had gone over to Xi Xia.

On the other hand, he secretly asked Di Qing who had just arrived to assassinate the Xi Xia prince for him. Di Qing met his aunt and went to see the prince.Instead of killing the prince, he saved the other's life from the hands of the general but the general's sister chose to stand beside the prince. She was another woman who liked Di Qing. The general got away.

The Xi Xia prince was grateful to Di Qing, so he released everyone and made peace with Song. When the enemy's army retreated, Pan's nephew grabbed the chance to report to the emperor that he was the one who defeated Xi Xia and brought peace to the country.

He returned to Kaifeng. Di Qing also brought his aunt back to Kaifeng. Di Qing got arrested as he was still a prisoner. The general tried to kill him but his sister protected Di Qing.

Bao brought the general's sister (the bride look alike) to Da Li Court and at last got to handle the case of Di Qing. He asked her to tell the truth about her brother murdering the real bride. She agreed at the end for the sake of Di Qing and both countries (without Di Qing, there could be great war and people would die.)

*** SPOILER ***
Zhan Zhao caught the general when he was about to kill his own sister. The general was brought to court. The Xi Xia prince also came to Kaifeng to testify Di Qing's innocence. The general killed himself and his sister took his body back to Xi Xia.

It turned out that Pan's nephew was in cahoots with the general to bring Di Qing down so that he could replace him and command the army instead. He was executed.

Rating: 3
This episode showed a story of another hero of Song, Di Qing. The story line was straightforward and simple although the performance from everyone was great.The ending was rather unsatisfying for me though, as I had hoped that there would be some sort of conclusion on Di Qing's romance since two women were in love with him.

I admired Di Qing's aunt the most for her courage and her determination to end her life for the sake of her nephew. She was one strong woman and it was no wonder that Di Qing, the mighty warrior, was related to her.

Just a side story here from an elder, I don't guarantee that it is true though.Di Qing and Justice Bao were originally gods from heaven. Di Qing was the one with a dark face but when he was supposed to have been born as a warrior, he changed his face with Bao for a warrior needed a pleasant face to appear in public. Hence, the reason Bao had a black face.

Case # 34
Thundering Anger

Story:
Yang Jia Xen raided the execution place in order to rescue his younger brother, Yang Jia Bao. The emperor was very angry and ordered the arrest of the entire Yang family. One of the Yang servants managed to escape to seek Justice Bao's assistance in helping the family.

Bao agreed and persuaded the emperor to let him handle the case. He then had Yang Jia Bao account everything that had happened.

Everything started from Yang Jia Xen's fiancee. Prince Chai's only heir, the young Prince, had seen her at a fireworks festival. Liking what he saw, he immediately sent his servant with dowry to her family. Her father was only a scholar and was afraid of Chai's power, so he did not dare to immediately refuse the marriage request. He consulted Madam Yang, and because Yang Jia Xen was at the north border at that time and unable to come back, Yang Jia Bao suggested that he'd disguise himself as his sister-in-law and go to the Chai family in her place.

On the wedding night, Yang talked the young Prince into letting him be alone for the time being. The young Prince put his bride under the care of his younger sister. This young Princess Chai was a good person, a total contrast of her brother. Later, she discovered that 'the bride' was actually a man. She fell in love with him and secretly married him. After that, her brother came and found out his bride's real identity. He tried to kill Yang Jia Bao but accidentally killed his sister instead.

In order to cover up the cause of his sister's death, he accused Yang of entering the Chai family unlawfully and raping his sister then stealing her valuables, hence the execution in the first scene.

After hearing all this, Bao went to the Chai family to look for further evidence. He found a parrot in the young princess' room and brought it back to Kaifeng as a witness. In court, he tricked the young Prince into admitting that Yang had told the truth. Prince Chai had to acknowledge Yang as his lawful son-in-law.

The young Prince was furious for losing the case to the Yang brothers. He kidnapped Yang Jia Xen's bride on her wedding day, and the first Yang brother had to fight with him under martial world's rules. Yang won and got his bride back.

Yang Jia Bao then decided to live near Princess Chai's grave for three years as a sign of his love for her. While he was there, he met a woman that looked exactly like the deceased Princess Chai. That woman was in fact Prince Chai's daughter born of a Liao woman.

To vengeance, the young Prince asked his father to recommend an official position for him. He was sent to the border where Yang was the general. There, he killed Yang in an ambush but was seen by a lady with strange kung fu who seemed to know his father. The young Prince Chai, on the other hand, framed the Yang general for betraying the country to Liao. Yang Jia Bao then decided to go to Liao to find out the truth.

During his absence, the young Prince went to Yang family, killed Madam Yang, and had his servants rape Yang Jia Xen's wife till she went mad.

Before his death, Yang Jia Xen had told his faithful servant to remove half of the arrow from his body and to take it to Bao. The servant went to Kaifeng but was caught by the young Prince's soldiers. He was subsequently tortured and crippled with only an eye left to see. His body was then left in the forest for dead.

At the same time, Bao had a premonition and so sent his guards to investigate. They found the Yang servant and obtained his side of the story by using name charts. (The servant's tongue had been cut off, and his tendons had been destroyed.)

Yang Jia Bao, on the other hand, had been captured by the young Prince but was subsequently rescued by a mysterious person. As it turned out, she was the young woman he had met earlier. Her mother was in fact the Liao's general. She professed her love for Yang, but he still could not forget his dead wife.

Yang then returned to Kaifeng and told Bao about his brother's death. Bao told Zhan Zhao to invite the young Prince Chai to court but warned him to have patience when dealing with the young prince.

Zhan Zhao went to the Chai family and was humiliated by the young Prince but being the loyal soldier, he would not give up the duty required of him. The Liao general and her daughter intervened at that moment and gave their word to Zhan Zhao that the young prince would appear in court.

As it turned out, the Liao general was once Prince Chai's lover. They had a daughter together. And for him, she was willing to do anything to help him and his son. She then ordered her daughter to be the young Prince's guard. The young Prince encountered Yang's servant in court and ordered his half-sister to assassinate the servant to get rid of the witness. She reluctantly complied with his order but fell into Bao's trap instead. She was wounded by Zhan Zhao and in a turn of events, agreed to help Bao expose her half-brother.

The young Prince was tricked into making his confession and was imprisoned for the time being. The emperor ordered Bao not to execute him for the Chai family had previously given up their rights to the throne to the first Sung emperor; therefore, from then on every Sung emperor had to treat the Chai well.

Bao had to obey the emperor's command and imprisoned the young Prince instead.

The young prince however was unrepentant and persuaded his father to con the Liao general into assassinating Bao. The Liao general used magic but her daughter sacrificed herself to help Bao against the evil spirit. Bao used his moon mark to defeat the general and made her see that she had been used by the Chai father and son all along. Sadly, she returned to Liao with her daughter's body.

Prince Chai took his son's hint and hung himself so that his title would pass on to his son, and hence his son would be released for the first Sung emperor had decreed an edict of pardon for every Prince of Chai.

Bao had to obey the edict and let the new Prince leave the court. He sadly took off his hat and decided to retire from his position.

*** SPOILER ***
The new Prince Chai walked out of the court haughtily. Yang Jia Bao waited for him outside and tried to kill him but did not succeed. At that moment, the sky darkened, and lightning struck at the prince. Bao came out in time to witness Prince Chai's punishment from heaven.

Royal Tutor Pan tried to accuse Yang of using black magic to kill Prince Chai, but Bao argued that Yang was the Chai's son-in-law and the only relative left; therefore, he would become the next prince and hence would be pardoned of all crimes. Pan was livid but had no ready answer for that.

Bao smiled and put back on his hat.

Rating: 4
Another typical Yang family saga with a slight twist. The story line was interesting enough to keep the audience wondering what would happen next, but the youngest Yang brother was a huge miscast. Maybe it was due to the fact that the actor in that role usually portrayed the villain in other cases or maybe because he did not have the heroic look of a typical Yang son.

The script made matters worse by making this character a physically weak man, meaning that he had no martial arts skills whatsoever. This made the whole thing rather unbelievable for how could the great Yang family produce such a son?

If all the events about the Yang family really happened, one would think that the emperor should have realised by now that this loyal family would never betray him or his country. On the other hand, without the many spin-off tales about the Yang family, the audience would be robbed of many entertaining series.

Nevertheless, the youngest Yang son was the heart of this episode. Despite his not so handsome look, two sisters fell in love with him, and ironically died for him directly and indirectly. The Yang family in this series was significantly powerless for the case focused more on Prince Chai's bad deeds. The Yang family was merely a convenient victim.

Conversely, the lead female characters mainly, the two Chai sisters had strong personalities and great kung fu. Both sisters were portrayed by the same actress. Her costumes were very pretty, and her hairdos and accessories really were awesome.

The action scenes were well executed - a good change from the usual use of explosions. In this episode, Zhan Zhao did show another side of his life as a pugilist in which he upheld the rules of the martial world. However, when it came down to the final fight, Bao was the one who defeated the enemy with his moon mark.

The ending was also satisfying and very conclusive. The moral of the story: nobody can escape from his/her sins.

Case # 36
The Pearl Blouse

Story:
A large group of commoners came to Kaifeng to accuse one governor Wang, who was also a new royal-brother-in-law of the Sung emperor. Justice Bao came to receive the people and went to ask the emperor for permission to investigate Wang. The emperor gave him permission and wanted to talk to the group leader. Later, Zhan Zhao was tricked into letting the group leader go with some fake soldiers (they came with the royal bade which even hoodwinked the experienced Zhan Zhao.) The group leader got killed and the rest were too scared to run away.

Nevertheless, Bao did not want to give up. He asked the emperor to call Wang back to Kaifeng. Meanwhile, the new concubine Wang (Governor Wang's sister) became the emperor's favourite. He presented her a pearl blouse, which was a tribute from Dali. Concubine Pan was jealous and tried to bully her. Wang was worried for his sister's safety, so he wanted to find another pearl blouse for Concubine Pan.

In fact, Wang and Concubine Wang were not real siblings. Wang was a scholar and had met with an accident. He was then rescued by her father and had been living with her family since. When her father died, Wang took her under his wings and had taken good care of her as if she were his real sister.

Wang found out that the only other existing pearl blouse belonged to the Li family in Kaifeng. He sent his trusted guard to buy it but his offer was turned down. That night, the guard killed some 30 people of the Li household and set fire after stealing the pearl blouse. He left only one maid who he took a liking to, and wanted to rape her. He brought her back to Wang's residence and was seen by the Kaifeng court gang. They reported that to Bao. Wang encountered his guard and admonished him for leaving behind one victim. The guard showed his captive to Wang secretly. Unexpectedly, the maid named Mu looked like Wang's former sweetheart who had died several years ago.

Wang decided not to kill the maid then. He pretended to be a gentleman and rescued her from the hands of his guard (whom he pretended was a stranger). The guard was killed by Wang's soldiers in front of the maid. She was impressed with Wang's heroic act. Bao was interested in the massacre of the Li family and the maiden from the street. He found out that she had disappeared into Wang's residence. Accordingly, he went there to look for her.

There, he found the maid Mu and a corpse of the guard with the injured Wang. Mu confirmed that the guard was the murderer of the Li family. The case seemed to end beautifully. Mu went to stay at Kaifeng court but later went back to stay with Wang because he made her believe that living at Kaifeng court was not safe for her. Wang gave her a big room and a lot of new clothes and jewellery.

Wang presented the Li's pearl blouse to Concubine Pan and made peace between her and his sister.

Zhan Zhao examined the corpse and found that its face had been disguised. The corpse was in fact a blind man who had no martial arts. His sister came to see the body but got killed by a masked man on the way. Bao assumed that the masked man could be the real murderer. The guard was actually alive. He was the masked man.

Mu saw the guard talking to Wang. He caught her and she was angry with him for deceiving her. She was sad but was unable to escape from his house. Later, he lied to her that the killing of the Li family was done in vengeance. She believed him because she had already fallen in love with him.

Bao wondered if the massacre of the Li family was in some way connected to Wang and Concubine Pan's pearl blouse. He asked the Eighth Prince to go see Concubine Pan and to identify her pearl blouse because the 8th Prince had seen the Li's pearl blouse before. Wang learned about it and had a eunuch borrow the pearl blouse from Concubine Wang instead and let her pearl blouse be inspected. The 8th Prince told Bao that Concubine Pan's pearl blouse was not the same as that of the Li family's.

Bao still had doubts, so he asked an expert on antiques, Old Mu, who was also the maid Mu's grandfather, to inspect both pearl blouses in front of the emperor. Wang knew about it too beforehand so he sent his guard (the Li's murderer) to Old Mu's and ordered him not to recognise Concubine Pan's pearl blouse in return for his granddaughter's life.

Afraid, Old Mu decided to lie to the emperor. He later told Bao the truth. Zhan Zhao, at the same time fought with Wang's guard and was injured with poison. He escaped to Wang's residence and met the maid who led him to a hidden place to purge out the poison. They were later caught by Wang but Zhan Zhao escaped eventually. Meanwhile, Bao discovered more and more evidence of Wang's corruption. He presented a memorial to the emperor who let his favourite concubine know and told her to go talk to her brother (Wang) heart to heart for the real truth.

The guard and Wang actually had a deeper relationship. They were long time friends and both loved Concubine Wang dearly as their real sister. They wanted her to become the queen.

**** SPOILER ****

Wang decided to kill the maid Mu although he loved her to get rid of witnesses. Concubine Wang came to see her brother and secretly witnessed the scene. The guard got caught by Zhan Zhao and was finally executed. Wang did not try to help him. Concubine Wang was laden with guilt for her brother.

Bao talked to Concubine Wang, asking her to reveal her brother's evil deeds. She finally conceded and led him to where Wang had buried the maid's body. He was sentenced death.

Wang was waiting in prison for his last hour when his sister came for a visit. She poured wine and drank with him. It turned out that the wine was poisoned. She chose to poison him and herself, and they died next to each other.

Rating: 3 1/2
The plot was simple enough. The ending was appropriate and rather unexpected. Concubine Wang really had an innocent air about her. She had me guessing in the beginning too as to whether she was really good or just a hypocrite. There are a few holes in the plot that I questioned such as what made Old Mu change his mind and tell Bao the truth?

Story:
A gang of mountain bandits killed a rich family named Yang on the way to a town. The father was a magnanimous man who liked to help the needy. He had a pregnant wife and a young daughter of 10 years old. The girl crawled away and escaped. The gang leader saw her and gave her pursuit.

At the same time, an old monk in a shack nearby started to chant a Buddhist prayer. There was also a boy living with him.

The gang leader caught up with the girl and brought down his sabre. At that point, lightning struck and the tip of his sabre was broken. He was shocked and let the girl go. The girl ran away and met the rest of the bandits. The gang leader then announced to the others to let the girl go. His followers would not listen and he kicked the broken tip of sabre towards one of them, killing him instantly.

The brother of the dead robber was angry and fought with the gang leader. The gang leader was injured badly. He received several stabs and was buried. Later, the old monk and his boy found him and brought him to their shack.

The gang leader accidentally saw a jade piece that hung from the boy's neck. He suddenly wanted to stay alive and begged the old monk to help him. The old monk gave him all his life energy and taught him a new way of life. The gang leader promised the old monk not to handle weapons or take any life again. He buried his half-sabre under a stone Buddha statue in front of the shack. The old monk then gave his robe to the gang leader and died (there were many flashbacks in this episode, telling bits and pieces of these details.)

The gang leader became a monk. He taught martial arts and raised the boy; all the while doing good deeds to repent his old sins.

Nine years had passed. A succession of high officials had been robbed and killed on their way from the capital to other cities lately and Bao was investigating the case. One night, someone was on the roof. Zhan Zhao went up and fought with the masked man. He almost lost but someone in a monk robe helped him and then disappeared. That mysterious monk left him with some last words they were, go to Death Hill.

Zhan Zhao went there with Bao and met a young girl named Yang who was paying respects to the many graves that were there. She said that they were her family but lied to Bao that they died from illness (the reason would be revealed later.)

Bao decided to investigate Yang's death. He went to the town near Death Hill and found out that Yang was killed by a gang of robbers who were later arrested. He then wanted to look at the record of this old case. However, the record hall caught fire just before Bao could send someone there. Bao thought that someone wanted to cover something from the case.

In fact, a current high-ranked official was once the investigator of this old case. Because he had caught this cruel gang of robbers, he got promoted quickly, hence his current high status. In truth, he was hand-in-hand with the new gang leader (the one who tried to kill the former gang leader who was now the monk). This new gang leader threatened the official's life and at the same time bribed the official with many precious items for a cover up by sending his subordinates to die for him.

For nine years, this new gang leader (the villain of this story) had worked for the official. The official would supply the bandit inside information on routes of the other officials and the bandit would rob their riches.

Zhan Zhao tried to find more information on the Yang case through the pugilistic world. He remembered that there was an old monk living near Death Hill. Accordingly, he went there. However, the new gang leader overheard all his conversation with Bao. He sent his subordinate ahead of Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao found two graves - one of the old monk and another of a stranger. He also found the half-sabre that protruded from under the stone statue. At that moment, he encountered the villain's subordinate. They fought, and the subordinate escaped. Unexpectedly, his boss stabbed him and pushed him down the cliff because Zhan Zhao had seen his face, hence he became useless.

In the meantime, the young girl Yang got bitten by a poisonous snake. She fainted and a monk appeared to suck out the poison from her shoulder. She woke up and found that this monk was the bandit who had killed her parents. Since a child, she had sworn vengeance. So, she stayed on with the monk and his boy. The boy was now a young man and had started to fall in love with the Yang maiden.

Yang tried to kill the monk several times but did not succeed (she stabbed his back once but he later gave it back to her with a smiling face.) This monk's martial arts was superb (probably better than Zhan Zhao), and he was very strong. The monk sensed Yang's intention but was not angry. He was at the moment trying to find enough evidence to present to Bao to convict the new gang leader. He did not do it for vengeance but through responsibility because he originally trained the new gang leader all the arts of being a robber. His student had turned out more cruel than he had been.

The monk found the subordinate who was pushed down from the cliff accidentally. He saved the wounded man. At the same time, the new gang leader found out that his enemy (the monk) was still alive. He planned to frame the monk, making it look like the monk had returned to his robbing profession again. Zhan Zhao was sent by Bao to investigate this case and recognised the monk's former name as the one on the unknown grave next to the old monk's grave.

He went back to the grave and dug it out but found no corpse. He concluded that this old robber must still live somewhere. Several soldiers went to capture the monk and were defeated. Zhan Zhao came and fought with the monk. The monk told the boy to take Yang and to escape ahead. He then tried to protect the wounded man (the gang leader's subordinate) till he was accidentally injured by Zhan Zhao but he managed to escaped eventually too.

Meanwhile, the gang leader tried to kill Yang and the boy. Yang recognised this robber as part of the gang that had robbed her parents. She pushed a torch into his eyes and escaped with the boy. The two later met up with the monk and the wounded man. She offered to go buy medicine for the monk.

In town, she met Zhan Zhao and was brought to see Bao. She came face-to-face with the high-ranked official and recalled her past. After she had escaped from the bandits nine years ago, she had gone to see this official. One night, she had seen him talking to the new gang leader. She was frightened and ran away without waiting for the case to be closed. From then on, she distrusted all officials and wanted to seek vengeance on her own.

This time, she still refused to tell Bao anything. They had to let her go but secretly sent Zhan Zhao to shadow her. The new gang leader tried to ambush her but was deterred by Zhan Zhao. The girl escaped during the melee and ran to the monk's hiding place. She boiled the medicine and put in the poison she had bought from town. Then, she gave it to the monk. The monk drank it and went into convulsions. He suddenly recalled his past and the young girl whom he had almost killed. He realised that he might die, so he called Yang to tell her to take good care of his apprentice.

Yang ran away and the boy went after her. To his disappointment, he found that she had poisoned his teacher. She had also tricked him into promising to help her take revenge. They quarreled and got caught by the new gang leader. He wanted to use them as a bait to get the monk to come.

The wounded man ventured out to look for the two youngsters and was caught by Zhan Zhao. He refused to talk however. The monk staggered into a medicine shop and was cured of the poison. He then escaped from Zhan Zhao who was hot on his pursuit again.

He then went to save his son and the Yang maiden. He was still weak, so he chose to save Yang. She later reprimanded him for forsaking his apprentice and he finally told her that the boy was in fact his son born from his rape of a young village girl. Yang was impressed that he chose her over his son and decided to stop seeking vengeance on him for the time being.

The new gang leader saw the jade pendant on the boy's neck and realised the truth. He told the boy that the monk was the cause of the boy's mother's death. (In a way, it was true since she jumped off the cliff after the rape then became paralyzed. The old monk had rescued her and she lived till she delivered a son.)

So, he let the boy go, hoping that the son would kill the father unknowingly. The boy believed the gang leader. He asked the monk about it and the monk confirmed his crime without telling the truth that they were father and son. The boy was disappointed and tried to kill the monk but couldn't because he loved his teacher very much. He went away and Yang went with him. They made up and decided to leave everything behind to start life anew.

The monk went to jail to rescue the wounded man. The new gang leader also went there to kill his subordinate. They fought with Zhan Zhao again. Finally, the subordinate decided to talk. The high-ranked official was arrested along with his trusted secretary. He was executed by Bao eventually.

The new gang leader was still at large and the monk told Bao that he would try a last robbery before retirement. Bao gave the monk the half-sabre.

*** SPOILER ***

The villain attempted a last robbery before going into hiding from the law. The monk went after him. They fought and Zhan Zhao came to help. The boy also came back because he realised that the monk really loved him. During the fight, he finally learned that he was the monk's son. The monk was heavily injured but he managed to kill the villain by kicking his sabre. Then he spent his last breath carrying the stone statue of Buddha to the top of Death Hill as he had promised the old monk.

The Yang girl had already forgiven the monk and she ended up with the monk's son.

Rating: 4
This episode is very good in plot and dialogue. The fighting was also great. The actor as the monk was superb. He first appeared as a cruel bandit and turned into a benevolent monk. The viewer's heart would change from hate to love for this character. Although I realised that death would be inevitable for him, I would constantly wish that there would be a way out for him so that he would not end up under Bao's blade.

Bao played a minimal role, whereas Zhan Zhao had a lot of screen presence in this episode. There was a lot of action that kept the episode at a fast pace. There were no cheesy dialogues but just simple enough talk that taught the viewer about good and bad deeds.

The only incredible factor was that the monk seemed too tough. He had survived so many deaths that he was almost like a god. Conversely, his young son was so weak in every way. At least, I am glad that he did have a happy ending.

Case # 39
The Execution of the Royal Tutor

Story:
Concubine Pan was pregnant. She was glad and told her father to do good deeds to help the people. The emperor promised her that he would proclaim her the queen if she gave birth to a boy. One day, Royal Tutor Pan met a woman whose husband was wrongly accused. Bao was out of town at the moment. He helped her and punished the wrong official. She and her husband were very grateful to Pan. The wife was also pregnant for the first time.

Concubine Pan went to a temple and fell from the sedan chair and had a miscarriage. Pan did not want to let his great future wash away, so he invited the doctor who examined Concubine Pan to his home and poisoned him. The doctor left Pan's home and staggered back to his house. He called his family to fetch an antidote.

Pan heard of the doctor's funeral and was jubilant. His next plan was to go see the couple whom he had helped earlier. He asked the wife to be his adopted daughter and brought them both back to his mansion. There, he separated them with an excuse that the husband needed a quiet place to study for the examination. In fact, he wanted to use the wife's baby as a substitution for Concubine Pan's child.

The husband was warned by a hunchback servant about Pan at his new house, whereas the wife overheard Pan's evil plan. She told Pan that she missed her husband and Pan had to let her meet him. The couple exchanged news and decided to escape. The wife pretended to want to visit the husband's study place. They went and ran away at night with the help of the hunchback. Pan had anticipated that however. His housekeeper caught the couple and had the hunchback servant killed. Pan locked the wife up and beat up the husband. The husband finally escaped but his tongue had been cut off. He went to Kaifeng court, but Bao had not yet returned.

Feeling desperate and wanting to vengeance on Pan, he jumped off the city wall and became a ghost. He then went back to Pan Mansion and haunted them. At the same time, he went to see Bao and asked for justice. Bao decided to return to Kaifeng.

Bao went to search for the wife at Pan's house but found no one. He had to apologise to Pan and was ordered by the emperor not to bother Pan again.

Pan enlisted help from a fox spirit in exchange for declaring the fox's home a preservation area, making it free from hunting. The fox spirit prevented the ghost from bothering the Pan household. Zhan Zhao went into the palace to spy on Concubine Pan and noticed that she appeared suspicious (she won't allow anyone to touch her womb, etc.). The ghost came and entered Concubine Pan's body and tried to kill Pan. The fox spirit came and managed to subdue the ghost. He chased the ghost into a well and closed it with his magical flag.

Zhan Zhao also had a fight with the fox spirit and came back to report to Bao. Pan went to see the emperor and asked him to punish Bao for trying to spy on him. Bao finally told the emperor of Pan's plan. The emperor was angry and ordered that Concubine Pan to be examined by a doctor. Surprisingly, she appeared pregnant and healthy. In reality, the fox spirit had managed to fake her pregnancy by connecting to the other woman's womb. Both women's stomachs would get big at the same time and they would share the same feeling.

The emperor was furious with Bao. He stripped Bao of his rank. Bao went away to a remote place and stayed in a bamboo hut with his gang. Zhan Zhao remained in Kaifeng to find a way to help Bao. He appealed to the Eighth Prince and Minister Wang but they were unable to do anything. One day, he saw the first doctor's widow in a medicine shop. He went to talk to the shop owner and discovered that the new prescriptions were in the handwriting of the first doctor who was supposed to be dead. He sent this news to Bao and Bao came to see the first doctor who eventually consented to help Bao.

The wife delivered a baby boy and Pan took him to the palace to give to his daughter. The housekeeper was about to kill the wife when Zhan Zhao came in time. He knocked the housekeeper unconscious and fought with the fox spirit. Finally, Zhan Zhao subdued the fox spirit using unclean substances from the woman's womb. The fox spirit promised to help with the case against Pan in exchange for sparing his life.

Bao went to see the emperor with Minister Wang and the 8th Prince, revealing everything. At first, the emperor would not listen but finally, he believed Bao and ordered Bao to arrest both Pan daughter and father.

Bao brought the fox spirit, the housekeeper and the first royal doctor as witnesses, so Pan could not deny the charge. He sentenced Concubine Pan to stay at the Winter Palace for the rest of her life. As for Pan, he was to be executed.

*** SPOILER ***
The empress dowager came and asked Bao to spare Pan's life for he did everything out of his love for his daughter. Pan was sentenced to life imprisonment instead. The woman reunited with her baby son and lived in the palace (the empress dowager fell in love with the baby at first sight. She was reluctant to let him go away.) One night, she heard her husband calling from the well, so she released him. His spirit then stayed with his family forever.

Rating: 3
The ending was rather dissatisfying. I would have preferred seeing Pan die under the blade, considering his past evil deeds. Also, the use of super naturals were not very appealing to me. Bao seemed to be the only official who really dared to fight against wrong for justice. Yet, he was helpless without anyone's support. Luckily, Zhan Zhao and the others at Kaifeng court were there for him and faithfully followed him everywhere.