Wei Anning, clutching the appraisal report, stumbled into the elevator; the report in her hands felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds. That morning, she had asked Leng Youchen whether the appraisal report had come out yet; she hadn't expected that so soon, she would have to face it.
She leaned against the elevator's metallic wall, unable to muster the courage to open it for a long time.
With a "ding," the elevator reached the first floor, and as the double doors slowly opened, she snapped back to reality and walked out of the elevator with the appraisal report in hand.
After leaving the hospital, she sat on the edge of the flowerbed outside, staring at the kraft paper bag until her eyes grew sore. Then she gritted her teeth and gathered the courage to tear open the envelope.
