Pan Long thought carefully for a whole day, and the next evening, he went to visit Shang Man again in prison.

He felt that he should be able to convince Shang Man.

The reason why Shang Man insisted on subduing the law was nothing more than the belief that "killing people pays for their lives".

This belief is a good thing, but a good thing...... There should be a limit, too.

Justice should not be a mechanical and rigid provision, but a guiding ideology with a certain degree of flexibility, which can benefit both people and society who follow this belief.

Moreover, it's a pity that Shang Man died like this!

There are too many damned people in this world, and there are too many people who deserve to die but don't want to die. Shang Man is alive, and he can let many guys who deserve to die and don't want to die - even if he is only in the innate realm and his strength is limited, but it is always good to be able to do something.

If you want the world to progress, you have to move forward little by little.

As a person who can promote the progress of the world, Shang Man's death while he still has strength left is a loss for the whole world!

He thought a lot about similar words.

When he said goodbye to Shang Man, he cleared his throat and tried to lead the conversation to the content he had in mind.

But Shang Man smiled.

"Pan Guanfeng, are you here to persuade me again?"

Pan Long nodded.

Before he could say anything, Shang Man shook his head, sighed, and said, "I guess...... You must be trying to say things like, 'If there is a turbulent situation today, good and evil are fighting and stalemate, and the right path has more strength, there will be more hope for the future, so you should cherish your life,' right?"

Pan Long was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect Shang Man to think of these things a long time ago.

He couldn't help but ask, "Since you understand this truth, why do you insist on dying?"

"What do you think...... Am I really that important?" Shang Man asked with a smile, "To influence the general trend of the world, you must first have enough strength. A real grandmaster like you, to be honest, is a little weaker. I've cultivated for less than three years, and I'm not even vulnerable in front of you...... Do you really think I have the power to influence the general trend of the world?"

Without waiting for Pan Long to answer, he added: "I guess you must want to say something about 'the platform of a hundred zhang starts from the ground, and the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'...... I admit that those words do make sense, but they really don't convince me. ”

He sighed: "There are so few things I can do in this world. It really doesn't matter if there's one more me, one less me. ”

Pan Long smiled: "If an innate master can 'don't matter', then aren't those people you killed even less worth mentioning?"

Shang Man was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect Pan Long to persuade himself like this.

"My identity? You probably know that, too. Pan Long continued? " I was in Yizhou, with the name of 'Yiwenxia'? I've done a lot of housebreaking and murder...... He also set fire to more than one cottage. According to the laws of Daxia? I could have been sentenced to several decapitations. ”

He smiled and said, "But I've never felt guilty about it?" Even...... Even if I'm not sure that every single one of the people I kill deserves to die, even if I know it myself? Innocent souls? I don't feel guilty about it. ”

He looked at Shang Man seriously and persuaded: "How can life be perfect? What did you do? Is the general direction good? It is to contribute to making the world a better place, so even if there are some problems and some mistakes, it can be tolerated. ”

"If the water is clear, there will be no fish, and if the people are cheap, there will be no fugitives. Seeking perfection and blame will only make things undone. ”

Shang Man looked at Pan Long? After a few seconds, a somewhat bitter smile appeared.

"Pan Guanfeng? Seemingly...... You, like Lao Tang and Liu Youwei, think I'm a decent person? Is it because you have to obey the law, because you can't resist the condemnation of your conscience? Before you decided to die? Right?"

Pan Long was stunned - isn't that so?

Shang Man sighed: "These words? I didn't want to say that. But since you have persuaded you to do this, I don't tell the truth, and I feel a little shameless. ”

He said, "I'm just going to tell you what I'm going to say, and I'm going to say it just once in the here and now." Even if someone mentions it again in the future, I won't admit it. ”

Seeing that he said so solemnly, Pan Long couldn't help but become serious, and seriously swept a large area around him with his divine sense, making sure that there was indeed no one or any formation or instrument listening, before he nodded and said, "Don't worry, out of your mouth and into my ears, no third person will know!"

Shang Man smiled, lowered his voice and said, "Actually...... I've never been a good person. ”

Pan Long raised his eyebrows, not understanding what he meant.

"As for me, I was an orphan since I was a child, and I was thrown at the door of the good hall when I was born. If it weren't for the kindness of Grandma of Shantang, I would have died a long time ago. Shang Man began to recall, "I was the ninth child that Grandma picked up that year, so Grandma named me 'Little Jiu'." According to her habits, if I can successfully grow up in Shantang, I will probably get the name of 'Xia Jiushan'. ”

Pan Long didn't speak, and listened carefully.

"But the Zendo didn't last until that time. When I was six years old, my grandmother fell ill and died. Shantang was not taken over, and was finally taken over by a Jianghu man called 'Scar'. ”

"That person is not a good person, he is actually a subordinate of the Green Forest Thief's 'One Hand Swallow'. I took over Shantang because I wanted to train some usable subordinates - after all, orphans who were raised from childhood are the most reliable, aren't they?"

Pan Long frowned and didn't say anything.

"The guy named 'Scar' isn't as good a talker as Grandma, and he's pretty mean to the kids in Shantang - he needs a bunch of obedient dogs, not sensible people. ”

"For as long as I can remember, I have been driven by him to be beggars, to find out the news for them by the way, and to look out for the wind when they committed crimes, and to be regarded as a gang and a robber. ”

"Honestly, being a robber...... In fact, it's not bad, it's still reasonable for 'one-handed swallow' to manage his subordinates. But as long as he succeeds in committing crimes and receives benefits, he has never treated us badly. Originally, I thought that was the end of my life. ”

Shang Man sighed and said, "But when I was nine years old, the 'one-handed swallow' lost his wind and was caught by the imperial court and beheaded. 'Scar' was very loyal to him, and with a few loyal brothers, he tried to rob the Dharma field, but failed, and he also gave his life. At that time, I was still looking at the wind, watching them die on the Dharma field from afar, bleeding all over the ground. ”

There was a look of embarrassment in his eyes: "I remember that at that time, the head of the 'Scar' was cut off by an official messenger, and he rolled out far away and rolled to a place not far from me. He looked at me, then opened his mouth as if to say something. ”

"Naturally, he couldn't speak, and I later learned lip language, and when I recalled the shape of his mouth at that time, he was probably going to say, 'You go.'" ”

That was the only kind thing he had ever said to me in his life. ”

Pan Long didn't know what to say, and he was very puzzled.

According to Shang Man's experience, no matter how you look at it, you should become a person in the green forest, how can you change careers?

"I'm only nine years old, where can I go? A few days later, Scar's territory was taken over by a wicked beggar nicknamed 'Leper Head', and those children, including me, naturally became 'Leper Head''s subordinates. ”

"That 'leper head' is not from the green forest, his business is called 'harvesting and cutting', which is to cripple good people, and then force these cripples to become beggars, and use the money these beggars to spend all day and drink. ”

Shang Man's eyes showed a look of pain, and he still felt sad when he thought of that memory: "Of our six children, four died in the process of 'harvesting and cutting', and the remaining two, one became mute and one became blind. ”

Pan Long clenched his fists and breathed deeply to keep himself calm.

He knew that the "leper" must have died in Shang Man's revenge, but even so, he was still furious.

He has seen this kind of thing once or twice when he walks the rivers and lakes, and every time he makes him thunderous, he directly lifts a knife to the door.

But those who do this kind of work are often very secretive, unless they are people who know these things very well, otherwise even the locals will only think that those victims have some kind of acute illness, some have died, and some have not died, but they have left the root of the disease.

"My life on the 'leprosy' side...... I don't want to say much about that, I don't think Pan Guanfeng is the kind of person who likes to force people to reveal their scars, right?" Shang Man smiled and said.

Pan Long nodded heavily.

"Anyway, I had a bad time. Shang Man sighed, "Originally, since the 'leper' wanted me to cheat money by being pitiful, it was natural to let me be as pitiful as possible...... Anyway, during that time, I became more and more inhuman, and I felt like I was gradually going to be like a pig and a dog. ”

He smiled wryly a few times and paused for a moment, presumably to soothe his mood.

"Maybe a year from now, or maybe a year and a half from now, it's not long...... After a long time, I will die like a 'little blind man' - there is a Wu scholar in Xiangping Mansion, who passed the Juren and Jinshi examinations, and rode a horse through the streets in red and color. ”

He showed a look of hope: "At that time, I was begging on the side of the road, and I saw him riding through the street with a proud face with a few people who were also Zhongjin Shi, and there were officials in front of him to open the way, which was really majestic!"

As he walked, he suddenly jumped off his horse, picked up a thin yellow woman who often sold tofu on the side of the road, and insisted that she ride on the horse and lead the horse for her. She was a famous beauty in the countryside, but she was hard to wear out her beauty because she made tofu with me—but in my eyes, she was the most beautiful woman in the world! Everyone gave me a face, and called her 'beauty', okay!' He shouted hoarsely, and the woman was so shy that she didn't know what to do, and everyone was laughing and echoing, and more than one person looked at them with envy......

Pan Long smiled: "It's so good!"

"Yes, that's good!" Shang Man muttered to himself, "I saw him yelling like that, but everyone echoed him and envied him, and the shouts of 'beauty' came and went...... I'm so envious of that too. ”

"What a face!" he closed his eyes and whispered, "That was the first time in my life that I understood the word 'face'." ”

He sighed for a while, and then looked at Pan Long: "Since then, I have made up my mind to learn from this Wu Shusheng - he is now the Xuezheng of Dingxiang Mansion, in charge of the official and academic affairs of the entire Dingxiang Mansion - to be a person with face, to be a person who makes everyone give me face!"

"You've done it. Pan Long said, "Even if it's me, I want to give you face." There are not many people in the world who can not give you face. ”

Shang Man smiled, didn't answer, and continued: "Later, I met a wind patrol who was injured and escaped, I didn't want to save him, but he called me 'little brother'...... I'm a beggar, dirty, smelly, dumb, even dogs hate me, and many people don't even bother to call me 'blind nine', just call 'hey'...... But he didn't, he called me 'little brother'!"

He took a deep breath and suppressed his excitement: "I made up my mind at that time, and I was willing to give him this face, even if I die, I will help him!"

"You all know what happened next. He's dead, I'm alive. I finished the last errand of my life for him, and then I went to cultivate, and then I took revenge. Shang Man exhaled and said, "When I took revenge, I actually wanted to kill all the enemies. But where I live in seclusion...... It's called Wei Gong Ancestral Hall, Pan Guanfeng, you are both civil and military, you should know this allusion, right?"

"Yes. Pan Long said, "Wei Yu, the 'general dispatcher of the world' of the Tianxiong Dynasty, is known for being good at finance and scheduling. The imperial army went on an expedition to Lingnan, and he served as the dispatcher in the army, because of the lack of supplies, he killed people for food. Later, the army was defeated, and he was knighted for his merits, leaving the 'Wei Gong Ancestral Hall'. ”

"In the early years of this dynasty, Emperor Taizu Jiazi inspected the world, passed by'Wei Gong Ancestral Hall', and after learning about this person's life, he was very angry and said, 'How can the merits of cannibalism be honored by future generations!' let people dismantle his statue, reshape a statue kneeling to the skeleton, and carve the inscription of Wei Yude's life, and stand next to the statue. ”

Shang Man nodded: "Because there are skeleton statues in that place, everyone thinks it is unlucky and inaccessible. I was living there in seclusion, listening to scholars who happened to visit the monuments tell me about this history, and I thought...... A person must not only have face before death, but also after death, and he must not be like this Duke Wei, many years after his death, he will be poked in the backbone by later generations with righteous words!"

Pan Long nodded, feeling that he had a point.

Therefore, I have been very cautious in my actions since then, so that what I do can withstand the criticism of future generations. Shang Man let out a sigh and looked at Pan Long with a smile, "Now, of course I can not die." But if I don't die, how will I face the criticism of future generations?"

Pan Long frowned, not knowing how to persuade for a while.

"Later generations of people who criticize me will never say, 'This man has done a lot of good deeds,' but will only say, 'This man is really brazen...... Duke Wei has also done a lot of good things in his life and made a lot of contributions, but when Taizu criticized him, he only saw the embarrassing thing about him. ”

Shang Man smiled slightly and closed his eyes.

"I'm a face-saving person, so I can only die. When I die, I can save face and not be ridiculed like this by future generations. ”