"The Sixth Set of Radio Exercises now begins. 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! Get Teacher Han to the hospital, quickly!"
"Who knows if he's broken any bones? 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 surrounding him, every one of them more anxious than the last. Then a searing pain shot through his elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make way," said a man in his forties, visibly relieved. He urgently asked, "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, Zhong knew nothing about 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, and her name was Liu Pingping. She was both a 985 Factory Descendant and third sister's classmate from kindergarten 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 was neither a cadre nor a formal employee; she was a "collective worker," whose salary and benefits were a grade lower than those of formal employees...
"Aimin, look at my hand!" Zhong Jianyu had no idea what Han Aimin was thinking. He raised a finger and moved it before Han Aimin's eyes.
The piercing pain in his elbows and knees,