During the lunch break, the third-floor restrooms were bustling with people.
As I cleaned the stalls, I heard several women outside touching up their makeup and chatting.
"To think I once thought he was quite capable—I must have been blind."
It was Paulina Haldane from the Technical Department, who used to be very attentive to me and repeatedly expressed her goodwill.
"Come on, didn't someone say, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover?"
"Ms. Andrew saw right through him! Making him clean toilets is brilliant!"
"Keep your voices down, he's probably still busy inside."
"What are you afraid of? He's already nothing, what can he do to us? Let him hear it, it's just a fact."
That afternoon, Mark walked in, surrounded by several people.
His steps faltered upon seeing me, his face flushing with a mix of awkwardness and reluctance.
"Lucius."
His henchman immediately scoffed. "Mr. Rousseau, you still talk friendly to him?”
"He's just a toilet cleaner now, not on the same level as you."
Mark frowned as if trying to refute, but in the end, he just sighed and said in a helpless tone, "Stop saying that, after all, Lucius has contributed to our company."
"Contributed to what? To save his face?" the man said mercilessly, "You're just too kind, Mr. Rousseau. This kind of person doesn't deserve your support."
I bent down to clean the waste paper in the trash can and turned a deaf ear to their words. Tied the black trash bag tightly, took it out and replaced it with a new one.
As I was about to leave work, I pushed my cleaning cart through the empty lobby on the first floor and bumped into Joana. She looked me up and down in my blue workwear, a sneer playing on her lips.
"Lucius."
"Getting used to the new job?"
I halted, meeting her gaze with calm eyes.
"Not bad. Thanks for your concern, Ms. Andrew."
She stumped at my indifferent expression and sneered, "When I first took over the company, my dad repeatedly emphasized your importance to me, saying that you are the backbone of the company and the soul of technology."
"I used to think you had great abilities, but now I realized you were nothing but an old fool relying on past achievements and waiting for death!"
I looked at her cheeks, that were slightly flushed with excitement and felt indifferent in my heart, so I just replied lightly. "Perhaps, whether it's gold or stone, the truth will be revealed one day."
This almost indifferent calmness angered her.
She took a step forward and her manicured finger almost touched the tip of my nose. She said in a sharp voice, "Lucius! Don't be so shameless!"
"Who do you think you are now? Just a stinky cleaner who cleans toilets!"
"If it weren't for my dad's sake, you would have been fired long ago."
"The truth will be revealed? Let me tell you, you are nothing without the company! You are just ...."
At this moment, the mobile phone in her handbag suddenly rang.
Joana frowned impatiently, took out her phone and glanced at the caller ID. In an instant, all the anger and arrogance on his face receded like a tide.
The name appearing on the screen was obviously very important.
She took a deep breath, barely suppressed her emotions and pressed the answer button. "Hey, what's going on?"
The next second, her expression changed drastically.
"What? The intelligent robot crashed during testing and caused a large-scale failure?"
"The Quinndom Group said that if it is not solved immediately, they will cancel an order worth one hundred fourty-two million dollars!"
