"The 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 and get Mr. Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows whether he broke any bones? We can't move him around. We should call the hospital!"
Han Aimin was jolted awake by the overlapping cries. When he opened 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 some room." 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, his former colleague and Big Brother. A military cadre transferred to 985 Factory after leaving the service, Zhong did not understand technology, and the factory had no shortage of political cadres. So they had 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. Not only was she a 985 Factory Descendant, she had also been third sister's classmate from nursery school 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 did not hold cadre status or formal employee status. She was a "Collective Worker," whose salary and benefits were a 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 Han Aimin's eyes.
The agonizing pain in