You Two, I'll Go First

"The Sixth Set of Radio Exercises begins now. Stretching exercise, ready—go! 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 whether he broke any bones? Don't move him. We'd better call the hospital!"

Han Aimin was jolted awake by the overlapping shouts. Opening his eyes, he saw familiar yet unfamiliar faces surrounding him, each more anxious than the last. Then a searing pain shot through his elbows and knees.

"Aimin's awake. Make way, everyone." A man around forty breathed a sigh of relief and asked anxiously, "Aimin, are you all right?"

Unless he was dreaming, this man before him should be Zhong Jianyu, once both his colleague and big brother. He was a military cadre who had been transferred to 985 Factory after leaving the army. 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.

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 a classmate of third sister's 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 did not hold cadre status, nor was she a formal employee. She was a "collective worker," whose salary and benefits were one grade 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 stabbing