Lao Zhang and his wife are hosting their son’s 1st birthday—a celebration bigger than their wedding. There is a formal Zhuzhou ceremony—a custom for 1-year-olds where choosing an object dictates their life’s path (which nursery, high school, college, house, car, etc.). Lao Zhang is overwhelmed by his son’s costly path but determined to handle it.

Each Chinese New Year there is a Spring Festival Gala—a live broadcast that randomly picks a family to showcase. Lao Wang thinks this is invasive, wanting privacy. Just as his neighbor Wu points out how unrealistic that is, drones skim the nearby lake and showcase Wang. Shocking everyone, Wang dives into the cold lake, bursting out in a pillar of golden light. Wu’s eyes burn and smoke rises from his sockets.

Xiao Li’s mother signs her up for a matchmaking service. The service center manager scans her, producing an identical 1-inch-tall figure of Xiao Li, then 10 more, and then a clone of her mother. The software tries various stimulations with 428 male mini-candidates (dates, wedding planning, meeting Li’s mom, honeymoons, children, etc.). Down to one final match, Xiao Li finds that it was the manager all along. They marry a month later.

Yang attends a high school reunion where they watch a projection of their memories/dreams from 10 years ago. He recognizes one voice as the average, unevenly toothed girl he once sat next to. She talks about her terminal illness, and even though she has many desires—small and large—her ultimate dream is to see everybody in 10 years, which she never does. Yang feels sick—like he’s not gonna make it another day. In the morning, he feels better.

On Grandma Zhou’s 99th birthday, she’s attended by nursing home technology (her aide and lines of virtual people). One of her granddaughters actually comes in person, and she conjures a clone of her grandma so that they can see the moon while her clone attends her visitors.