It means that I would rather let the people in the world fail me than let the people in the world fail me.

Cao Cao's words in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" show the true nature of a traitor in one sentence.

When Cao Cao was wanted, on the way to escape with Chen Gong, he stayed at the home of his father's friend Lu Boshe. Lu Boshe entertained him warmly and went to the market to buy wine to entertain him. At this time, Cao Cao heard that the Lu family were sharpening their knives outside and talking about "tying them up first and then killing them." He thought that the Lu family was going to betray him, so he and Chen Gong drew their swords and killed everyone in the Lu family. Only then did he find a tied pig in the backyard, and knew that the Lu family was not going to betray him, but wanted to kill the pig to entertain him.

Cao Cao and Chen Gong fled quickly. On the way, they met Lu Boxe who was returning from buying wine, so Cao Cao killed Lu Boxe as well.

Chen Gong blamed Cao Cao and said, "It was a misunderstanding just now, so I killed Boshe's whole family. Now that I know it was a manslaughter, why did you kill Lu Boshe?" Cao Cao said, "Boshe comes back." When I saw that his whole family had been killed by us, I must report it to the officials. If the officials come after us, it will not be easy for us to escape."

Cao Cao saw that Chen Gong felt uncomfortable and said again: " I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me."

Chen Gong saw that Cao Cao was such a ruthless bastard and knew that he was a wolf cub. He regretted saving him and following him, so he abandoned him. .