"The Sixth Set of Radio Exercises now begins. Stretching exercise, ready, begin! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight; two, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight..."
"Aimin, Aimin, wake up!"
"Teacher Han! Teacher Han!"
"Stop shouting and get Teacher Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows whether he broke any bones? We can't move him carelessly. We should call the hospital first!"
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 searing pain shot through his elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make room." A man around forty breathed a sigh of relief and asked anxiously, "Aimin, are you all right?"
Unless he was dreaming, the man before him had to be Zhong Jianyu, once his colleague and big brother. He had transferred to 985 Factory from the military. Since he knew nothing about technology and the factory had no shortage of political cadres, he had been assigned to the Children's Middle School as a politics teacher.
Behind Zhong Jianyu stood a young woman in a Floral Plaid Spring and Autumn Shirt. Her surname was Liu—Liu Pingping. She was both a 985 Factory Descendant and third sister's classmate from kindergarten through middle school. After graduating high school, she had failed to get into university, so the factory assigned her to the Children's Middle School as an English teacher. But she held neither cadre status nor formal employee status; she was a "Collective Worker," whose salary and benefits were one 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 waved it before Han Aimin's eyes.
The sharp pain in his elbows