In the era of the Great Wilderness, Liu Zhuo—a master distiller preserving ancient brewing techniques—struggles to keep his family alive: every meal is coarse bran and wild vegetables; his wife collapses from chronic overwork; his granddaughter gnaws on tree bark from starvation. In utter despair, Liu Zhuo discovers that the wooden door of his wine cellar opens directly into modern society. Amid today’s flood of synthetic ‘tech-powered shortcuts’ in food production, Liu Zhuo trades his centuries-old, traditionally aged liquor for cheap staples—rice, meat, eggs, and dairy.
