"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!"
"Mr. Han! Mr. Han!"
"Stop shouting! Hurry and take Mr. Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows if he broke a bone? We can't move him 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 struck his elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make some room." A man around forty breathed a sigh of relief and asked anxiously, "Aimin, are you all right?"
If this wasn't a dream, then the man before him had to be Zhong Jianyu, his former colleague and Big Brother. A military cadre transferred to 985 Factory, Zhong didn't understand 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 kindergarten through middle school. After graduating high school and failing to get into university, she had been assigned to the Children's Middle School as an English teacher. But she wasn't a cadre or a formal employee. She was a "Collective Worker," with pay and benefits one grade below those of formal employees...
"Aimin, look at my hand!" Not knowing what Han Aimin was thinking, Zhong Jianyu raised his fingers and moved them before Han Aimin's eyes.
The sharp pain in his elbows and knees, the familiar faces before him, and the familiar melody of