For working part-time during the Dragon Boat Festival, Mom Fu gave her a bonus of 20 yuan, which, combined with the leftover change from running errands, brought her secret stash up to 35 yuan. Even so, Fu Ying still planned to skip breakfast. Whenever she could save, she had to save. When the time truly came that she had to spend money, that little bit would vanish like a pebble dropped into the ocean, making not a single sound.
The school bus arrived as usual. There was no need to return to the homeroom yet. Fu Ying saw a few classmates already standing at the entrance of the lecture hall, while others had casually found steps to sit on and wait. As for the rest, who knew where they had run off to.
This scene reminded Fu Ying of all the different attitudes she used to see among candidates every time she entered a testing site for her self-study exams: those who clung desperately to their review materials until the very last second, those too nervous to know what to do with themselves, those who had completely checked out and were just messing around, and those who treated the whole thing like a mere formality.
Chapter 45