Once, Wu Zetian received a letter which informed against Zhou Xing. The letter aside that Zhou Xing was plotting a rebellion in collaboration with others. Wu Zetian was furiously angry when she read the letter, and immediately ordered Lai Junchen to deal with the case severely. Hearing the order, Lai Junchen had misgivings about it. He knew that Zhou Xing could not be forced to tell the truth merely by using a letter informing against him because he was very sly and crafty. Lai Junchen also knew that he would not be for given if he should fail in dealing with the case, because the empress would certainly blame him and punish him. How could he solve the problem then? He turned the problem over and over in his mind, and finally thought out a "brilliant scheme".

In the last years of the Warring States period (zhàn guó 战国, 475-221BC), the State of Qin (qín guó 秦国) attacked the State of Wei (wèi guó 魏国) on a large scale repeatedly and occupied large areas of land, for the State of Wei was too weak to defend itself.