Bao Xiruo

Bao Xiruo (包惜弱) is a fictional character in the Jin Yong wuxia novel "Legend of the Condor Heroes".

Early life

Bao Xiruo was the beautiful wife of Yang Tiexin and mother of Yang Kang. In the novel, she rescued an injured Wanyan Honglie after the fight between the soldiers and Qiu Chuji, who assassinated a Song traitor conspiring with the enemy Jin invaders. Wanyan Honglie later appeared to save Bao Xiruo when Song soldiers led by Duan Tiande came to the Niu Family Village to arrest her husband and Guo Xiaotian for "treason" (aka. harboring the assassin who killed the official). Guo Xiaotian was killed in fighting and his wife Li Ping captured by Duan Tiande. Yang Tiexin was presumed dead and Bao, already pregnant with Yang's child, decided to follow Wanyan Honglie back to the Jin capital, when he revealed his identity as the sixth prince of Jin Kingdom. As revealed later in the novel, it was actually Wanyan Honglie who bribed and sent Duan Tiande to raid the Niu Family Village, with the goal of killing Bao's husband and possess Bao.

18 years later

18 years later, it was revealed that Bao Xiruo had married Wanyan Honglie and became a prince's consort. Her unborn child had grown up into a fine young man known as Wanyan Kang. Because of actively depress of her first husband's supposed death, she unintentionally neglect her son which result of Yang Kang fully under the care of Wanyan Honglie. Once, Wanyan Kang happened to meet Mu Nianci and her father Mu Yi in a martial arts contest for a spouse. In fact, Mu Yi was Yang Tiexin, who had survived the onslaught at Niu Family Village years ago ("Mu Yi" is the name "Yang" split into two characters). He had also adopted a daughter Mu Nianci, and the contest was actually his last-ditch attempt to locate the lost child of his sworn brother Guo Xiaotian. Wanyan fought with Mu Nianci and won, but after molesting her in public (forcefully hugging her and taking her shoe away), refused to marry her as according to the rules. There was then a fight between Guo Jing and Wanyan Kang, as Guo kept insisting that Wanyan should keep his words rather than acting a playboy. Bao Xiruo arrived on the scene and stopped the fight, and Mu Yi caught a glimpse of her.

Reunion

Wanyan Kang decided to bring Mu Nianci and her father to his residence and had them locked up as a form of "protection". Mu Nianci and her father were rescued by Guo Jing and they tried to flee the prince's residence. Mu Yi happened to enter the place where Bao Xiruo stayed, and seeing that Bao still kept her husband's old spear, realized that Bao still loved him. Mu Yi then revealed himself to be Yang Tiexin, and the couple were reunited. Wanyan Kang arrived on the scene and refused to acknowledge Yang Tiexin as his biological father, mainly because of Yang's poverty. Later, Wanyan Honglie found out and led his army to pursue the couple, who tried to flee. Surrounded, Yang Tiexin and Bao Xiruo committed suicide together so they couldn't be separated again.

References

See also

* Condor Trilogy
* List of characters in Condor Trilogy