"Sixth Set of Radio Exercises begins now. 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! Hurry and get Teacher Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows if he's broken any bones? We can't move him carelessly. We'd better 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 elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make room." A man around forty breathed a sigh of relief and asked urgently, "Aimin, are you all right?"
Unless he was dreaming, the man before him should be Zhong Jianyu, once his colleague and big brother. He was 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 political studies 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 school through middle school. After graduating high school without getting 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," with salary and benefits 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