"The Sixth Set of Radio Exercises now begins. Stretching exercise, ready, go! 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! Hurry and get Teacher Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows whether he broke any bones? We can't move him around. We should call the hospital instead!"
Han Aimin was jolted awake by the overlapping cries. Opening his eyes, he saw familiar yet unfamiliar faces gathered around him, each one more anxious than the last. Then a searing pain shot through his elbows and knees.
"Aimin is awake. Make some room." A man around forty heaved 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 was a military cadre transferred to 985 Factory after leaving the army. Since he knew no technical work 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 not only a 985 Factory descendant, but also third sister's classmate from nursery school through middle school. After graduating from high school and failing to get into university, she had been assigned to the children's middle school as an English teacher. Yet she held neither cadre status nor formal employee status. She was a "collective worker," whose salary and benefits were one grade lower than 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 before Han