There had been no gain in the results of the year, but she'd made three friends in the class, namely Wang Yumin, ranked 30th, Dong Xiaoqian, 35th, and Zhang Peipei, 41st. Pipi's own ranking had fluctuated from 38 to 39.
The four girls gave their own small group a name,"Peach Blossom Island", and developed various codes. After class, they'd get together to chat and play jump-rope. Out of the four, Peipei had the most outstanding appearance and the most affluent family, but everyone looked down on her. In key high schools like C City One, 30 would be one level and 40 would be another. The big class of fifty people was poor after forty. No one wanted to play with poor students. If you really played with them, it would be a charitable act. Zhang Peipei deeply understood the subculture of the High School and the Seventh Class, and was fascinated by these friends. She'd buy a large bag of raw fried packets every morning, eat only one, then bring them to the school to share with her friends.
It was a luxury to eat steamed buns every day that year. Pipi had a thin face and went without food sometimes. When she wanted to eat more, she'd be too embarrassed to ask. Wang Yumin and Dong Xiaoqian thought that this was how it should be. They would give Peipei a copy of their homework; they would call her over to play games; some people would bully her and they would attack and attack... So almost none of them had bought breakfast for a whole year, saving their breakfast money. If they didn't eat Peipei's buns one day, Peipei would be very scared and think she had offended them.
Pipi felt that being humbled to this point was more tragic. But she had to admit that Peipei had a very good set in interpersonal relationships. Sure enough, Yu Min and Xiao Qian are more enthusiastic about Peipei than she was. For example, on the spring of March, the teacher asked the students to voluntarily divide themselves into three groups. Yu Min and Xiao Qian rushed to Peipei, which made Pipi have to group up with two other girls who didn't do much good. On the way, she also quarreled over the division of labor, and finally they split up. The annual spring break was ruined. Later, she said this to Peipei, and Peipei just grinned: "Is this even worth complaining about? You don't want to think about it. Who is going home with you every day? Do you know how many girls there are in this grade who'd kill to get near Jialin?. It's not all bad, right? People just look to me for a substitute friendship and some food for their bellies."
"Then you still call it friendship, but you buy it with a fried bun?"