"The Sixth Set of Radio Exercises begins now. Stretching exercise, ready, 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 broke a bone? 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 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 in his forties visibly relaxed and anxiously asked, "Aimin, are you all right?"
If this wasn't a dream, then the man before him had to be his former colleague and big brother, Zhong Jianyu. He had transferred to 985 Factory after leaving the military. 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, wearing 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 kindergarten 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 was neither a cadre nor a formal employee. She was a Collective Worker, whose salary and benefits were a tier below 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 sharp pain in his elbows and knees, the familiar faces before him,