At eight o'clock the next morning, the time announced for workers to collect their wages, people had already begun waiting at the designated location from just after six.
As time passed, more and more people gathered. Once there were too many people, disorder came easily; voices chattered from every direction, and the place quickly grew noisy.
"Hey, Old Liu, weren't you from the spray-painting workshop of Plant Two? I remember your pay time was from ten to twelve. Why did you come so early?"
"How could I not come? Look at all these people here to collect their wages. No one has come out to direct us yet. We don't even know how to line up. By ten, won't it be a pot of porridge?"
"Didn't they say we were to line up according to our time slots? What, Old Liu, do you think this is squeezing onto a bus? First one aboard gets a seat?"
"What's it to you? I'm older than you. If I get on the bus after you, you still have to give me your seat."
"Hey, Old Liu, now you're just being unreasonable! Eight to ten is when our Plant One gets paid. You came early to squeeze in with us—what are we supposed to do?"
"Exactly. Why weren't you, Old Liu, this eager when it came to working? The moment you heard money was being handed out, you ran faster than anyone."
Ordinarily, when a large enterprise paid wages, it did so in a "group-buying" fashion, distributing them separately by plant and workshop. Yet the notice had told everyone to come here for their pay.
Although the notice had assigned different time slots to different plants and workshops, there were still many people like Old Liu, terrified that they would not get their