Cao Shuang's younger cousin, Cao Wenshu, had perished, and the family of his widowed wife, Xiahou Lingnu, wanted to remarry her to someone else, in response to which she cut off both her ears, and later her nose. Her family asserted that the Cao clan was exterminated, but she retorted by saying: "I have heard that a person of worth does not renounce his principles because of changes in fortune, nor a righteous person change his mind with a view to preservation or destruction. While the Cao flourished, I was bent on keeping my chastity. Now that they have declined and perished, can I bear to renounce them? Even animals do not act this way; how can I?" When Sima Yi heard of this, he allowed her to adopt a son as an heir to the Cao clan.