After waking up in the fiery, fervent 1970s, Gu Xiang calmly declares, “Struggle? Devote myself? No thanks. I just want to lie flat.” While everyone in the village is scrambling for work points, she quietly sips goji berry and red date tea, leaning against the wall with her enamel mug as she basks in the sun. The brigade leader laments, “Educated Youth Gu, keep this up and you’ll be criticized and denounced!” But when a sudden illness sweeps through the village during the autumn harvest, the herbs in her humble little vegetable garden are the only thing that saves everyone’s lives. The old Party secretary, who once despaired of her ever amounting to anything, offers her a recommendation for a Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers university with trembling hands. She draws hers back and smiles. “As long as I can keep lying flat and sunbathing...”
