The Little Shop of the 1970S

Tang Tang, an e-commerce operator, drops dead at her desk. When she opens her eyes, she’s in the countryside of Northeast China in 1975, having become the youngest daughter of the production team leader. A microwave oven made by Galanz in 2024 hangs from the village entrance’s old locust tree. Its nameplate is engraved with nine little dots and a line of text: “Seventh Anchor · Seed · Leakage Registration No.: LEAK-1975-DB-009.” She gets her start with the instant noodles inside the microwave, then opens a general store, improves the pickled cabbage, and experiments with high-yield corn, building a prosperous life for herself. Cadre Zhou from the supply and marketing cooperative is always holding an enamel mug and saying, “The clock is three minutes fast today.” Until one day, a gray-clothed man with stones growing on his body comes to her door and demands the microwave. Old Zhou says, “The general store is an anchor. Don’t close it.”