While passing through the town of Caoqiao, the famous
Song dynasty official
Bao Zheng is stopped by a villager on behalf of his blind mother. Bao discovers that the blind woman was
Consort Li, a
concubine of the late
Emperor Zhenzong. Twenty years ago, right after Li gave birth to a son, a jealous rival
Consort Liu conspired with
eunuch Guo Huai to have the infant swapped with a dead
civet. She then ordered her maid
Kou Zhu to throw the baby into the river. At the Jinshui Bridge, a hesitant Kou was approached by eunuch Chen Lin. Chen was able to carry the infant to Eighth Imperial Prince, one of Zhenzong's brothers, who raised the baby as one of his own. Eventually the baby became
crown prince as Zhenzong had no other sons. As a result of giving birth to a monster, Li was banished to Yu Chen Palace, while Liu was elevated to the status of Empress. One day, the 10-year-old crown prince wandered to the forbidden palace and met Li. Liu came upon them and became suspicious. She convinced Zhenzong that Li was cursed and needed to be burned to death along with her palace. Kou ran off to warn Li and was
interrogated harshly when she returned. After Kou killed herself by slamming into a pillar, Guo and the soldiers went to Yu Chen Palace to carry out the burning order, when they saw a
hanged body with Li's clothing. Unbeknownst to them, eunuch Yu Zhong had sacrificed himself, allowing Li to escape. The crown prince had become
Emperor Renzong, and Bao uses the
Lantern Festival for an opportunity to tell him the story. Then, Bao tricks Guo to the
Kaifeng court but Guo stubbornly refuses to confess. Playing on Guo's fear of the supernatural, Bao invokes the "Ghost of Kou Zhu" to finally get a confession. Liu is ordered to commit suicide while Renzong welcomes his mother back to the palace. ==Cast==