"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 and get Teacher Han to the hospital!"
"Who knows whether he broke a bone? We can't move him around. We should call the hospital instead!"
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 burning pain shot through his elbows and knees.
"Aimin's awake. Make way." A man around forty breathed a sigh of relief and anxiously asked, "Aimin, are you all right?"
Unless he was dreaming, the man before him should be Zhong Jianyu, his former colleague and Big Brother. 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 teach politics at the Children's Middle School.
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, she had failed to get into college, so the factory assigned her to teach English at the Children's Middle School. But she had neither cadre status nor 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!" 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