THE STORY!
There once was a guy named Chen Shimei who lived with his wife Qin Xianglian and
kids in the countryside. One day, Shimei gets hired by the king in the city to
work as a fuma ye in his royal circle, and marry a princess. This sounds rather douchey on the king’s part until you realize that nobody in the city actually knows that he is married. However, rather than explaining that he has a happy family at
home, Shimei agrees to the
marriage and lives in the city for years, eventually becoming corrupt. Meanwhile, years later, his wife is worried about her
husband, as everyone in her village thinks he died. So she takes her
kids and belongings and goes to look for him in the city. Shimei finds out that Xianglian is searching for him and he hires an assassin to kill her and their
children. The assassin, showing surprising human decency, does not assassinate the family and instead informs Xianglian of her
husband’s situation. She is furious and reports him to the king. However, since
ol’ Chen has a crap ton of power, being a high-ranking official and the husband to the princess, nobody is willing to take the case except for one Bao Gong, who is the guy singing. He is famous in Chinese legend to be the epitome of fairness and justice, and the song is basically Bao Gong announcing to the public Chen Shimei’s crimes and condemning him.
