Chapter 336 – Distributing the New Year’s Gifts

Time flew by, and today was already the last working day of the year. The factory had not scheduled any production tasks; instead, all employees were assigned to take part in a thorough year-end cleaning.

After the cleaning, everyone would be able to pick up their New Year’s gifts.

This had all the steel factory workers in high spirits. Not only would they get a few days off, they’d also receive one jin of pork and two jin of peanuts and melon seeds—for free and without needing any ration tickets.

Naturally, everyone wanted to finish the cleaning quickly and go collect their gifts.

“I heard the reason we’re getting such generous gifts this year is all thanks to Zhou Yimin, who invented a bunch of new stuff. The factory’s performance was great, so they managed to secure all these supplies,” said one person as he cleaned.

“Yeah! With one jin of pork, and some leftover meat coupons from before, I can finally make dumplings for the family. Last year the stuff we got wasn’t even enough to make dumplings. My mom didn’t eat a single one; she gave them all to my son,” another replied, wiping down a machine.

“I heard this year the gifts are being handed out equally to everyone. Never thought I’d live to see the day we’re treated the same as the senior workers. This time, every gift across the factory is identical,” added someone mopping the floor.

This year’s standardized distribution had its perks. Unlike previous years, when senior workers received much better and more plentiful gifts than junior ones, now everyone was on equal footing.

Of course, even if junior workers had complaints before, there wasn’t much they could do—after all, senior workers were senior for a reason. The factory’s precision parts were all thanks to them. Without their skills, the factory wouldn’t survive.

While everyone was still cleaning, noon arrived. The cafeteria served a decent lunch with two meat dishes. Although the portions weren’t huge, it was much better than the usual fare.

Many people planned to pack it up and take it home to share with their families.

For many ordinary workers’ households, meat was a rarity throughout the year. Whenever there was something nice, they usually brought it back home to share.

Everyone’s lunchboxes were packed to the brim. After lunch, each workshop held a year-end meeting.

They reviewed what had been done well during the year and what needed to be improved next year.

But no one was really paying attention—everything went in one ear and out the other.

The workshop directors knew this would happen, but they still had to go through the motions and deliver the summary.

Of course, they didn’t go on too long either. If they delayed the gift distribution, it would be hard to start off the next year’s work on a good note.

So the workshop directors had all agreed: by 2:30 at the latest, even if the summaries weren’t done, workers would be released to collect their gifts.

As soon as the summaries ended, it was as if everyone had made a secret pact—someone bolted out the door immediately.

People dashed toward the logistics department like a gust of wind.

At first, only a few people ran, but fearing the best cuts of pork would get snatched up, more and more joined in. Soon, nearly the entire factory staff was running.

Some things are contagious, like students rushing to the cafeteria after class.

With tens of thousands of people swarming the logistics department all at once, it was instantly packed tight.

Only the veteran workers strolled over slowly, completely unbothered about the good cuts being taken.

The factory had already informed the senior workers that, since supplies were hard to come by, everyone would receive the same gift—but the best pork had already been set aside in advance for the veterans.

That quieted their complaints. They knew food shortages were real and didn’t say much more.

Master Kong and the others arrived at the cafeteria, which had been designated as the gift pickup spot for the veterans. The pork here had been personally sourced by Zhou Yimin—big, fatty cuts with hardly any lean meat.

Seeing the slabs of fat pork, Master Kong and the others stared in awe. It had been a long time since they’d seen pork this rich.

They didn’t even know how much lard could be rendered from that meat. Just a little would make stir-fried dishes mouthwatering—just thinking about it made their mouths water.

Since all the pork looked pretty much the same, the veterans didn’t bother scrambling for it.

As senior workers, they still had to maintain some dignity—they couldn’t just charge in like some market aunties fighting over a bunch of vegetables, could they?

The staff distributing the gifts were very respectful when they saw the old masters. “Please line up, everyone. Don’t worry, there’s plenty to go around.”

The veterans queued up in an orderly fashion, and seeing that, the distributing staff finally relaxed.

She had been terrified the old masters would rush the table too, and if there wasn’t enough pork, she’d be in deep trouble. She didn’t even know where to find such quality meat again.

If Director Ding hadn’t repeatedly reminded them that the fatty pork was strictly for the veterans, the logistics staff would’ve split it up among themselves long ago.

Meanwhile, the main logistics department was a different story. Even the Security Division had been called in to maintain order. There were just too many people—over ten thousand swarmed the area at once.

Some people tried to take advantage of the chaos, but the Security Division quickly pulled them out and made an example of them: “No cutting in line. Go to the end.”

“Why should I?” the person barked back defiantly.

But two more security officers came over and didn’t give him a chance to resist—they simply grabbed him and marched him to the back.

Most of the Security Division were retired military, not people you could argue with. The guy kept yelling, but the crowd just watched like it was a show, no one stepping in.

Seeing that no one would help, the man realized resistance was pointless. To avoid further embarrassment, he shut up and let them carry him off to the end of the line.

After witnessing that lesson, those who had been thinking of sneaking in gave up the idea immediately and obediently lined up, terrified they’d end up with only the leftover scraps.

“Thank goodness I didn’t cut in line,” someone nearby muttered in relief.

That troublemaker had almost dragged his friend along with him, but fortunately, the friend had held back.

To speed things up, the logistics department had set up over a dozen distribution points. Still, with so many people, each line stretched endlessly.

(End of this chapter)