Bai Weiran occasionally took Qing Ning to participate in night cleaning duties.

Still unenthusiastic about the job, Qing Ning found that constant reading could also dull her senses. So, whenever she steps out, it's like a puppy let off the leash, and she can't help but brighten up with smiles tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Enjoy cleaning that much? Not a fan of the Porsche anymore?"

Bai Weiran joked, pushing his trolley. Qing Ning silenced him by pulling down her mask and making a face at him.

"I'd like it in my dreams, I'm sure I'll never like it in my life."

Bai Weiran nodded, "That's good."

"What's good about that?"

"The most important thing in life is to be happy and true to yourself. Now that you've experienced being a cleaner, you are certain you dislike it. That's good; you won’t force yourself to do it in the future."

"…And you like it?"

"I quite like it," Bai Weiran candidly said.

"I like keeping things tidy and sweeping the floors clean."

Upon hearing this, Qing Ning whirled her enormous eyes, clicking her tongue twice.

"Do you like math too, by any chance?"

Qing Ning surprisingly hit the nail on the head, causing Bai Weiran to raise his eyebrow.

“…Why would you guess like that?”

“Didn’t you ever take psychological tests or personality tests? Actually, there are many similarities in personalities. Those who are fond of subjects like math and philosophy generally have a higher degree of logic and appreciate cleanliness, order, and the beauty of simplicity. They enjoy organizing their surroundings because their brains simply cannot tolerate chaos.”

After some thought, Bai Weiran felt there was a lot of truth in her words. His own work was also related to numbers, he nodded.

“Indeed, you are quite accurate.”

The young girl then proudly tilted her chin, as the loose strap of the safety helmet she was wearing swung backward with the movement.

“Aren’t you a superhuman? How can you not know such a thing?”

Bai Weiran found her mental strength amazing. Even being physically restrained didn’t stop her from being her sassy, high-handed self. With Bai Weiran’s reasonable personality, the roles of abductor and captive have confusingly reversed and she now felt bold enough to start answering back with challenging remarks. He, in the same situation, would probably be cautious, thinking through every step, carefully calculating and making sure not to deviate.

The subservient attributes of the underprivileged were deeply rooted in him.

However, this wasn't the case for her, environment surely breeds people.

Regardless, Bai Weiran never pointed this out. Instead, he enjoyed encouraging her innocence and oblivious arrogance, as a reasonable level of arrogance could actually help in boosting her self-esteem.

The biggest characteristic of an abusive relationship is the relentless attack on the object’s self-esteem.

Self-esteem is the first line of defense. Once it is weakened, one starts to feel inferior, strained, and begins to self-negotiating.

Truthfully, the person who can truly defeat her is not the abusive Asa but herself: both mentally strained and self-attacked, self-manipulated and self-hypnotized, thus falling in love with the enemy.

He merely smiled and complimented her.

“You’re right, I have a lot to learn!”

While leaning slightly to buckle the strap of her safety helmet.

Qing Ning was used to being served and didn’t find anything extraordinary in Bai Weiran’s move.

However, she felt something sudden within her.

The previous times she was served were either at home or in high-end brand VIP rooms.

The air conditioning was always comfortable, everyone spoke with the softest voice, the room was lit with soft light, soft music was playing, a faint fragrance diffusing as the air circulated everywhere—— She took all these privileges for granted, didn’t feel anything special.

But now, she was in a park at night, dressed in an old and ugly worker's uniform, a safety helmet on her head, and the man in the mask buckled her helmet with his glove which he used for work. The glove which had just touched cinnamon tree emanated the particular scent of plants.

It was humble, but comforting.

Suddenly she couldn't distinguish the difference between the two situations.

"Can you two siblings stop showing off your good relationship? It’s too much," someone teasingly chuckled. Qing Ning's little masked face blushed, and she guiltily darted off to the side.

Has she gone insane, to think that being kidnapped is rather pleasant?

"I can understand though. If I had such a wonderful little sister in my youth, I would definitely have cherished her too."

A janitor lady and Chen Zhengde walked over together. The teasing came from the lady, while Chen Zhengde remained reticent as usual.

Bai Weiran glanced at Qing Ning and responded with a smile.

"As it should be."

Chen Zhengde came to notify them in person that there would be no work for them for the next month.

Initially, this contract was his to undertake. Even after renewing the procedures, it was snatched midway by those with connections, turning it into a cleaning company owned by some petty bureaucrats' relatives. Both the judges and contestants were insiders, not allowing the benefits to spill into outsiders' hands.

Although the situation has come to this, Chen Zhengde is still trying to fight.

Legal actions are not out of the question, but it gets complicated when it involves people.

Facing those cleverer people who understand the bureaucratic laws more than you through legal means can be tough.

Even without any errors, they could find faults to blame you, self-righteously explaining why they had to temporarily replace the cleaning company. The failure rate is high, and it could put you under scrutiny.

Even if successful, it would risk offending people.

As the old saying goes, the bureaucrats shield each other. It seems that everyone has some sort of these left-hand-into-right-hand side gains.

If you pull one person down, would others dare cooperate with you in the future?

Less trouble is better than more. It's better not to cooperate with you.

Cooperating with the official system, not afraid of them fleeing or crashing, but also suffers from the malpractice caused by complex interpersonal relationships and layers of internal management.

Therefore, Chen Zhengde doesn't plan to go the legal way but wants to seek help from others.

Bai Weiran kept silent, but Qing Ning found it hard to accept.

As a child of a large business family, she values the fairness of transactions and the importance of contracts more than anyone else.

"...How can this be? What will you do then?"

Chen Zhengde just took Qing Ning's indignation as a young girl's sense of justice, giving her a gentle and calm smile.

“The situation hasn't reached the worst yet, it's okay, and I am already negotiating and looking for opportunities elsewhere. It's just that everyone has to wait for a while before I can announce anything.”

After all, being an experienced executive who has stood firm in a company for many years, he is not only kind but he has his own strategies and patience.

Although he said that, Qing Ning still couldn't accept it, looking frustrated.

Bai Weiran saw this. Unusually, he let Qing Ning do the payout for the day's wages to Chen Zhengde when the work had ended. Qing Ning found this strange, but she went anyway. Just when Chen Zhengde was putting the cash into Qing Ning's palm, the face mask on her face unexpectedly loosened and revealed her face in front of Chen Zhengde.

Chen Zhengde was taken aback as he stared at her.

"... Miss?"

As a veteran who had been working for the Qin family for many years, he recognized Qing Ning at a glance.

The reason he hadn't noticed before was that Qing Ning felt ashamed of doing cleaning work. She always wore her hat low and a mask, refusing to reveal her true face.

Being kidnapped was one thing, being forced to do cleaning work by the kidnapper, she would feel incredibly ashamed if this was exposed.

Qing Ning was shocked and tried to touch her face.

Could the mask loosen without any movement?

Her mind in disarray, she quickly turned her head to look for Bai Weiran, who should have been somewhere far away.

He was nowhere to be seen.

Three hours later, the Qin family issued a press release stating that their missing daughter had been found. The reward was terminated, and they apologized for causing social unrest and discussion due to their personal reward and the use of public resources.

Bai Weiran sat on top of a building, watching the large TV screen on the opposite office building cycling through the news.

When a game reaches a certain stage, testing needs to begin.

How much effect could these days of correctional behavior have on Qing Ning?