"Aimin, Aimin, wake up!"
"Teacher Han! Teacher Han!"
"Stop shouting! Hurry and get Teacher Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows if he broke any bones? We can't move him around carelessly. We should call the hospital!"
Han Aimin was jolted awake by the overlapping cries. Opening his eyes, he saw familiar yet unfamiliar faces gathered around him, each looking more anxious than the last. Then a searing pain shot through his elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make some room." A man in his forties breathed a sigh of relief and asked urgently, "Aimin, are you all right?"
Unless he was dreaming, the man before him had to be Zhong Jianyu, his former colleague and Big Brother. Zhong had transferred out of the military to 985 Factory. Since he knew nothing about technology and the factory already had enough political cadres, he had been assigned to teach politics 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—Liu Pingping. She was both a 985 Factory Descendant and third sister's classmate from kindergarten through middle school. After graduating from high school and failing to get into university, she had been assigned by the factory to teach English at the Children's Middle School. But she had neither cadre status nor formal employee status. She was a "collective worker," earning a grade less than formal employees in salary and benefits...
"Aimin, look at my hand!" Zhong Jianyu had no idea what Han Aimin was thinking. He raised a finger and moved it before Han Aimin's eyes.
The sharp pain in his elbows and knees, the familiar faces before him, and the familiar melody of the Sixth Set of Radio Exercises outside made Han Aimin realize that this was not a