No one is perfect

The giant in front of him was tall and fat, greedily eating the dishes brought to him by the fairies.

Xu Shulou recognized the fabric of his clothes; it was the same cloth that she had worked so hard to weave. She looked up at the man for a long while before she could barely connect him to a painting in the album based on the mole on his lip.

She flew into the other person's sight and said straight to the point: "I am also a person who has entered the painting. Do you want to leave with me?"

The other party slapped her away impatiently: "What a mess! Don't disturb me while I'm drinking."

Xu Shulou was stunned for a moment, and looked into the void: "His memory..."

"If you accept the rules here, you become a local," the voice explained to her, "Over time, they even forget where they came from."

"How long has he been here?"

"In terms of time here, it's tens of thousands of years. During this time, he never tried to resist. Isn't it interesting?" The voice seemed to find it very interesting. "In the beginning, he didn't dare to resist. Later, he followed the rules and ascended to the 'Supreme Immortal'. He didn't need to resist anymore. He began to enjoy this privilege and oppress others."

“…”

"Why? You insisted that I take you to see it, and I did," the voice laughed, "Are you disappointed?"

“…”

Seeing her silence, he asked proudly, "Don't you want to take him out of the painting? He has already eaten countless flowers watered by blood and flesh. Do you think this kind of person is worth saving?"

"Please take me to the next one."

"Okay, I'll stay with you until you give up."

They walked through this magical wonderland and saw many people along the way. Some people tried to adapt to the rules in order to survive, some people sucked the flesh and blood of others without changing their expressions, and some people turned themselves into rule makers, making more stringent rules to embarrass those who came later...

"So, after seeing these people, are you completely disappointed with human nature?"

Xu Shulou shook his head slowly.

The voice choked: "Why? You saw the faces of those people, you should be as disappointed as I am..."

Xu Shulou smiled bitterly: "This is not fair. They may be very good people in the normal world outside. You can't throw them into such an environment, force them to become bad people, and then criticize them in turn."

"You are too kind," the voice was dissatisfied, "They were turned into bad people by the environment. This only shows that they are bad people. How can you blame me?"

“…”

"Why are you silent? Do you think I'm wrong?"

"I just feel that we can't convince each other for now," Xu Shulou said helplessly, "There is actually no right or wrong in this matter. After all, people have been arguing about it for thousands of years, but there is still no conclusion in the end."

"Humph, I must be right!"

Xu Shulou asked: "Is there any way to erase their memories and let them go?"

"Yes," the voice said triumphantly, "but why would I do that?"

“Because there are people waiting for them in reality.”

"Here, you can blame the environment I created for turning them bad. But if I let these people out, and they eventually turn bad again in the real world, who can you blame then?"

Xu Shulou shook his head: "I won't blame anyone. If they do something like this again in real life, I will end their lives with my own hands."

"One moment you are tolerant, the next moment you are bloodthirsty. What kind of weird way are you practicing?" the voice muttered.

"I don't know what this is," Xu Shulou shrugged, "I'll tell you when I think of a name that has an extraordinary bearing."

“…”

"It's not possible that everyone would fall into this trap," Xu Shulou asked. "I remember that among those who entered the painting there was a man called Li Qu, who was known as a 'great good man'. Is he here too?"

"He is not in this fairyland," the voice said sarcastically, "It's ridiculous that this kind man couldn't even pass my third level."

"Can you take me to see him?"

"That's good," the voice responded happily, "It's a good opportunity to show you the true face of the so-called great good man."

The voice took Xu Shulou out of the fairyland and into a small world constructed according to Li Qu's memory.

"A mill?" This small world was too simple. Xu Shulou was a little surprised. He stepped inside and was shocked by the scene in the mill.

In the middle of the mill was a huge millstone, and several mules were pulling the millstone without complaint. However, what was thrown into the millstone to be ground was not beans or rice, but human heads.

The human head was thrown in and ground for a while, and what came out was a blur of blood and flesh. The entire millstone and the ground were soaked in blood.

The "good man" Li Qu was tied to a pillar nearby and could only watch all this happen.

These things had been repeating for who knows how long, so when Xu Shulou, the variable, stepped into the mill, Li Qu's eyes immediately lit up and he struggled to throw himself at her, but the rope restricted his movements, and some vague sounds came out of his hoarse throat, not sure whether it was a request or a wail.

Xu Shulou looked towards the center of the millstone: "Whose head is this?"

The voice replied: "Li Qu's parents, brothers, wife, one son, one daughter, nieces and nephews."

"……Why?"

"In the third realm of painting he experienced, I asked him to choose between his family and the people of the world, and he chose to let his family survive," his voice contained a hint of contempt, "so I will make him watch his family die with his own eyes, day and night, over and over again. This is his punishment."

Li Qu probably also heard this malicious voice and wailed again. He kowtowed several times on the ground facing the void, and his body was covered with bloodstains.

Xu Shulou distinguished a few words from his unclear voice: "I was wrong, I was wrong, please... kill me..."

"It's the same thing again," the voice said disdainfully, "He has tried to commit suicide many times, but here, he can only die completely with my consent."

Xu Shulou looked into the void in confusion: "Did you have an unhappy childhood? Or has someone in this world hurt you badly?"

"No, I'm not a human, so how could I have a childhood? No one has ever hurt me, except you threw a few bricks at me," the voice asked strangely, "Why do you ask that?"

"..." Xu Shulou raised his hand and sent out a stream of spiritual power, causing Li Qu to fall asleep. "Why bother?"

"I just can't stand these so-called good people. I want to expose his true face. Why not?" There was a kind of innocent cruelty in his voice. "When you get out, you can also tell others about his experience here as a joke."

"When I was in the cultivation world, I heard the name Li Qu," Xu Shulou sighed softly, "In the real world, he is a good man, a loving father, and a considerate husband. He has helped and saved many people. When there was a flood on earth, he gave out porridge and built houses for the victims... This is enough to make him a good person in the universal sense. What is his true face? Who cares what he chooses in the illusion?"

"He failed my test. He is unworthy of being called a good man!"

"What do you want to prove?" Xu Shulou asked softly, "Why do you have to force him to choose between his family and the world? This is unfair. What's wrong with valuing your family more than the world? Is it you who judges what is right and what is wrong? How many people in the world can pass this so-called test?"

"You can. I saw your memory. You gave up revenge for the people of the world!"

"Yes, I chose the people of the world, but so what?" Xu Shulou asked, "From now on, I will become a moral role model for the whole world. Should people who choose differently from me die?"

"What's wrong with everyone being like you? I've seen too many things in you during this period..."

"What good is it if everyone is like me? This world is so interesting because of all kinds of people." Xu Shulou looked into the void, "I chose this world because I love it, not because I want to see everyone face the same difficult choice as me. Let them go."

"They didn't pass my test, why should I let them go?"

"You use this method to test human nature. What you find is not a good person, but the perfect saint you imagine. However, no one in this world is perfect," Xu Shulou advised. "I just luckily didn't fall into your trap. I am not perfect either. I am far from perfect. I don't even meet the standards to enter here. I have to be ten times more shameless than I am now to have the nerve to use the word 'innocent' to describe myself."

“……”You have a clear understanding of yourself.

"There is no perfection in this world. Human nature is inherently imperfect. You have to accept this," Xu Shulou sighed. "We are all human beings. As human beings, we have all kinds of shortcomings, desires, fears, and greed. You shouldn't use this standard to demand us."

"I just want to find a little bit of humanity that won't let me down. Is that wrong..."

"Of course it's not wrong, but... human nature is a very complex thing. Even though it has its flaws, it also has many beautiful aspects. I believe that if you change your perspective, you can see the shining points of human nature in Li Qu. You can't deny him as a whole person just because of his choice. That's not fair."

The voice said angrily: "You don't understand at all!"

"I understand, because I also wanted to kill all those people like you. But human nature has good and bad sides. I have seen many people in the mortal world. Some love justice, while others care about details. In my memory, you should have seen the top scholar who easily surrendered to the traitors and devoted his life to the country and the people, and the king with blood on his hands who worked for the welfare of the people. According to your standards, they probably deserved to die. Unfortunately, their merits and demerits in life should not be judged by you and me."

"…Are you saying I don't have the qualifications?"

"Yes," Xu Shulou admitted the accusation without fear. She stretched out her hand to the void, as if trying to touch the voice, "Close this deformed world and let the people here go. I can take you to see the real world outside. You have such great ability, why don't you do something else? Why do you have to use it to test human nature?"

“…”

When this painting first gained intelligence, it was just like a child in the human world, without any sense of good or evil, and without any sense of right or wrong. All its cognition came from the memories of people who had mistakenly entered the painting. After going through layer after layer of tests, it was gradually infected with hostility, and the hostility in the painting became more and more serious.

It believes that it is doing good for the real world by imprisoning those who cannot pass the test and those who have a dark side or have experienced a painful past, because such people are most likely to become bad. It loves pure and flawless human nature, and has spared several such people, until today it met Xu Shulou, a strange guy who has nothing to do with "innocent and flawless".

It was certain at first that she would be lost, because the light of her soul was too complex, but...

It suddenly occurred to it that perhaps the human nature it wanted to see was not the kind of innocent and naive human nature... People who have experienced tragic pasts are indeed more likely to become bad, but the complex human nature that has gone through ups and downs still has an eternal brilliance, which may be more valuable.

Everyone who enters the painting will leave a mark on it.

If it had to admit what Xu Shulou brought to it, it might be...tolerance?

Is it really true, as she said, that Li Qu does good deeds in real life, so he is a good person and there is no need to re-evaluate him using those weird and strict standards?

Is it too absolute? Is it really wrong?

This simple little mill was quiet for a very long time.

Then the voice asked softly: "If, I mean if, I let those people go, what do you think they will do? Do good or do bad things?"

"I don't know what they will do," Xu Shulou breathed a sigh of relief, "but the first thing I will do is pick up a pen and draw a huge pile of cow dung on you."

“…”