"The Sixth Set of Radio Exercises begins now. Stretching exercise, ready—go! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight; two, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight..."
"Aimin, Aimin, wake up!"
"Mr. Han! Mr. Han!"
"Stop shouting and get Mr. Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows whether he broke any bones? We can't move him carelessly. We should call the hospital!"
Han Aimin was jolted awake by the overlapping shouts. Opening his eyes, he saw familiar yet unfamiliar faces gathered around him, every one of them more anxious than the last. Then a burning pain shot through his elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make room." A man around forty breathed a sigh of relief and asked urgently, "Aimin, are you all right?"
Unless he was dreaming, the man before him should have been his former colleague and big brother, Zhong Jianyu. He had been a military cadre transferred to 985 Factory after leaving the service. Since he knew nothing about technical work and the factory had no shortage of political cadres, he had been assigned as a politics teacher at the Children's Middle School.
Behind Zhong Jianyu stood a young woman in a Floral Plaid Spring and Autumn Shirt. Her surname was Liu, and her name was Liu Pingping. She was both a 985 Factory descendant and third sister's classmate from nursery school through middle school. After graduating from high school, she had failed to get into university, so the factory assigned her to teach English at the Children's Middle School. But she had neither cadre status nor formal employee status. She was a "collective worker," whose salary and benefits were a tier below those of formal employees...
"Aimin, look at my hand!" Zhong Jianyu had no idea what Han Aimin was thinking. He raised a finger and moved it