"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! Get Teacher Han to the hospital, quick!"
"Who knows if he broke anything? 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, each looking more anxious than the last. Then a searing pain shot through his elbow and knee.
"Aimin's awake. Make some room." A man in his forties sighed in relief and asked anxiously, "Aimin, are you all right?"
If this was not a dream, then the man before him should be Zhong Jianyu, once both his colleague and Big Brother. A military cadre transferred to the 985 Factory after leaving the service, Zhong knew nothing about technology, and the factory had no shortage of political cadres. So they assigned him 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 nursery 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. But she was neither a cadre nor a formal employee. She was a "Collective Worker," whose salary and benefits were one tier below those of formal employees...
"Aimin, look at my hand!" Not knowing what Han Aimin was thinking, Zhong Jianyu raised a finger and moved it before his eyes.
The piercing pain in his elbow and knee, the