"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 get Mr. Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows if he broke any bones? 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 more anxious than the last. Then a burning pain shot through his elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make some room." A man in his forties visibly relaxed and asked anxiously, "Aimin, are you all right?"
Unless he was dreaming, this man before him should have been his former colleague and Big Brother, Zhong Jianyu. He had been a military cadre transferred to 985 Factory. 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.
The young woman behind Zhong Jianyu, dressed in a Floral Plaid Spring and Autumn Shirt, was surnamed Liu—Liu Pingping. She was both a 985 Factory Descendant and third sister's classmate from nursery school through middle school. After graduating high school and failing to get into university, she had been assigned by the factory to teach English at the Children's Middle School. Yet she was neither a cadre nor a formal employee, but 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 sharp pain in his elbows and knees, the familiar faces before him, and