Kim Taehyung wakes up and finds himself in the middle of a strange room. In a state of agitation, he reaches out his hand and rubs his forehead to clear his thoughts.

All he can vaguely recall is that he was on his way back to his dorm after finishing the day’s work on studying genetically modified potatoes in his lab when suddenly a mysterious and powerful force pushed him into a river. The last sensation he felt was the agonizing fear of drowning to his death, which seemed to have lingered forever.

While looking around the room, Kim Taehyung recalls from his dream that he now has the memory of a man with the same name as his – a second-generation descendant of a wealthy family who now is in straitened circumstances. With his surroundings getting more and more familiar with those in that man’s memory, he realizes he has traveled back through time.

Before he could wrap his head around what’s happened, he finds his stomach is grumbling

Rubbing his belly, Kim Taehyung rolls out of the bed to cook himself some food.

As he builds the fire and starting cooking, he keeps organizing all the pieces of his newfound memory. Obviously, he has traveled back to the body of a young man from the Kim family. The man’s parents were both very capable and successful people but were seldom home. Due to a lack of proper parental discipline, the man was spoiled rotten and ended up becoming a good-for-nothing who would spend his days either loafing around or visiting one brothel after another.

Had his parents been alive, Taehyung would have kept leading a comfortable life without a care in the world. Unfortunately for him, his parents got into an accident while on business, and with no one to support him anymore, the man was banished by his own family to a desolate and remote place.

In the middle of cooking, Kim Taehyung hears a rustling sound.

Then he sees the door across him is slightly opened and through the crack a child is observing him from inside. Taehyung keeps his head lowered without speaking or doing anything else.

The previous owner has a wife who was originally one of his servants to whom he married after he, drunk into oblivion, forced himself upon him in a quite scandalous affair. The man didn’t like his wife at all and the couple had a long bad relationship. The couple has two sons even though they had only shared the same bed a few times

In this world, it’s not easy for men to conceive, and the man’s wife proves to be much more fertile than everyone else. The previous Taehyung had quite a number of female and male Suitors, all of whom would trash talk his wife to him in private, saying that the boys were not his, his male wife cheated on him, and that he was raising someone else’s children.

The previous Taehyung, being easy to be influenced, grew suspicious of his wife whom he already disliked, and consequently, his disdain for his wife spread to his own sons.

Back when he was living in his mansion, the man would simply ignore the existence of his wife and children, which in a way avoided much friction between them. But after he was banished to this remote village, the man was filled with bitterness for the ill-treatment from his own family. Unable to vent his grievance, the man chose to unleash his anger and frustration upon his wife and children.

Kim Taehyung assumes that his male wife, Jungkook, has probably gone out looking for food. Because the husband always gets violent, whenever Jungkook goes outside, he would tell his two boys to lock the door from the inside in case their father causes any trouble.

Kim Taehyung is only seventeen years old, but he already has two sons – four-year-old Kim Namjoon and three years old Kim jimin

This somehow puts the man, who is a twenty-seven-year-old single man in the previous world, to shame.

Despite his young age, his older son Namjoon is quite smart and cunning. The younger son, Jimin, however, is nothing like his bother. Shortly after Jimin was born, the boy fell seriously ill. The father didn’t bother to care, and when the doctor was called in, it was too late. The severe fever got to the boy’s brain and has since left him mentally handicapped.

Kim Taehyung raises his head and looks at the door where he finds a small head cautiously peaking through the crack. After meeting the man’s eyes, the child instantly draws back his head, and after Taehyung looks away, the small head pops up one again.

Even though Kim Taehyung and Kim Jungkook were spouses, the former had never treated his male wife as one, forbidding him to take any food in their home. Whenever the husband was out drinking and seeking pleasure, Jungkook had no choice but to find food for him and his two sons on his own.

Lowering his head, Kim Taehyung remembers that he left his original home with eight hundred of silver ingots while Jungkook didn’t have a cent. Had the man scrimped on the money, it could have lasted him for a while.

However, this spoiled childe, who wouldn’t blink an eye while handing out generous tips to servants, couldn’t change his reckless way of spending and after only a few trips to town, he ended up squandering all the money on his vices.

The previous Taehyung’s eventual death was caused by his hopeless addiction to the so-called Happy Powder, a nerve-paralyzing drug that is said to give people extreme pleasure. After knowing every detail about the man whose body he’s trapped in, Kim Taehyung is suddenly filled with a sense of gloom for his future.

As Kim Taehyung pours some cooked porridge for himself, he notices the little guy’s eyes are already fixed on the bowl.

Taehyung goes on and pours another bowl of porridge before waving at Jimin, asking him to come inside.

The man’s invitation, however, make the little boy recoil in fear.

Taehyung shakes his head after seeing the boy’s reaction. Although Jimin is mentally challenged from that fever, he still possesses the instinct for self-protection. The realization that the previous owner must have frequently beaten the boy frustrates Taehyung for traveling back to become someone who used to mistreat his own son.

Taehyung puts the bowl on the table and starts eating. The door cracks open once again and there runs into Jimin who obviously has succumbed to his hunger. Seeing the small boy’s expecting look, Taehyung holds him up and puts him on a chair by the table.

The sight of the boy’s old and patched clothes brings a bit of pity and regret to Taehyung’s heart. Jimin is just a little boy who is too young to care about anything else than fill his empty stomach.

After moving to this place, the previous Taehyung would often come back home from outside with food and Jimin would run over to ask for something to eat. If the father was in a good mood that day, he would spare a part of the food to the boy, but if he happened to be in a foul mood, he would beat the boy instead. And most of the time, it was the second situation.

Jimin wolfs down his food and while doing so, he keeps holding his bowl tightly with one hand, as if someone would snatch it away from him anytime. Kim Taehyung pushes a bowl of steamed egg to the skinny boy.

Jimin eyes sideways at the man with suspicion, and after making sure he means no harm, the boy tentatively pulls the bowl of egg to himself. Seeing Kim Taehyung acting normal, he immediately eats the whole thing up. The door stirs again and Kim Taehyung notices someone else is studying him behind it.

Kim Taehyung lowers his head. That boy behind the door is Kim Namjoon, the young yet very smart older son. Taehyung keeps his head lowered, trying to act as normally as he can. The memory of the previous Taehyung tells him that this world is very special, so he decides to try not to be seen as an alien and risk getting burned to death.

After finishing eating, Jimin seems to have remembered something, so he bolts out of the table. A moment later, Taehyung hears the sound of the door across him being locked back up.

Jimin raises his small head and answers with an innocent grin

Namjoon bites his lips as he finds himself agree with his brother. Although there is enough bread to fill their stomachs, it is indeed unpleasant to eat or swallow because it tastes just like sand.

Realizing his brother is angry, Jimin lowers his head and pulls at his clothes nervously.

Since the two young boys shut their door, Taehyung has been listening to them talking the whole time outside. After traveling back to the previous Taehyung’s body, the man suddenly realizes his hearing has become a lot sharper because he has managed to hear every word the two boys said.

After being expelled to this place, the previous Taehyung had, at one point, wished that his family would let him go back. So he kept spending hand over foot, and after he wasted all his money, he thought of Jungkook and started looting his room. Eventually, he robbed all the money his male wife had taken great pains to accumulate.

Kim Taehyung rubs his forehead. Although none of those things was done by him, he still feels it is part of his life due to the fact that he now owns the body and memory of the previous man.

The boy’s answer immediately frightens Jimin to tears

The younger boy’s crying instantly fills Taehyung’s heart with guilt and sadness all at once.

After returning to his own room, Taehyung starts checking whatever has been left of his belongings. When he first arrived here, he had twenty mu (1.33 hectares) of farmland on the account book, including five mu of first-rate land, six mu of medium-rate land and nine mu of lower-rate land. Now, he only has five mu of lower-rate farmland left.

Taehyung scratches his head, condemning the loser of a man for squandering nearly all his property and at the same time, lamenting the fact that fate seems to have let him travel back through time at the worst possible time.

As Kim Taehyung takes stock of his meager belongings, a sound from outside informs him that his male wife has returned. Kim Taehyung was gay in his previous life, but he had remained single for fear of being discriminated. Naturally, he is both thrilled and a bit bashful when he finds out that he has married to a good-looking male wife in this life.

The previous Taehyung and Jungkook had a poor relationship. Even though the couple lived under the same roof, they rarely shared much of a conversation, and even if there was one, it was far from being amicable.

Kim Taehyung decides not to get chummy with the man so suddenly. Instead, he stays in his room and keeps his ears open. Following a call of “Joonie ” from Jungkook, the door is heard being opened.

Namjoon casts a glare at his younger brother, which makes the little one recoil.

Jungkook looks at Jimin curiously. Being mentally disadvantaged, his younger son almost never lies. Usually, every time he is back, the starved boy would get clingy and ask for food. Therefore, Jungkook has reason to believe that his little boy must have eaten after he said he’s not hungry.

Jimin, pouting and fiddling his fingers, talks back with a wronged look

Seeing the pitiful look on his brother’s face, Namjoon decides not to remind him of the truth that their so-called father has never once treated them like they are their sons.

Jungkook keeps his head lowered, looking upset and worried. In this wild world they live in, most of the people live off their farmlands. People here are categorized in a five-element, hierarchical system of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Among them, those from the wood group are capable of facilitating the crops’ growth; those from the water group are able to keep their crops irrigated; the earth group is known for keeping their farmlands fertile, while the metal group can leave the land barren and the fire group can hurt the crops. People from the latter two groups are considered a lot inferior to the other three groups.

After being confirmed to be one of the fire people, Jungkook was sold by his parents to others. Taehyung, on the other hand, is said to belong to the water and wood group, which makes him advantageous in farming. Unfortunately, this spoiled and lazy childe had never once gone to the farmland.

Leaning against the door, Kim Taehyung keeps eavesdropping on the dad and sons next door. From the previous Taehyung’s memory, he already knows Namjoon is quite intelligent. Now he’s learned that his elder son is also capable of such forethoughtfulness.

In this world, there are men, woman and Ger people. Ger people, who can get married to either a man or a woman, have a rather inferior social class. After Jungkook was sold to the Kim family, he was required to sign an indenture. Therefore, if Kim Taehyung wanted to sell his sons, Jungkook couldn’t do anything about it.

A sense of hopelessness starts to rise in Jungkook’s heart.

Jungkook now has level three spirit power. Had it not for these two boys, he would have joined the mercenaries or become a security guard for an influential family. Either would have sufficed to provide him with the essentials he needs in life. However, the reality is that he has two children and one of them is mentally disabled.

Jungkook, with his head lowered, feels at a loss for the future.

Almost instantly, the look in Nam Joon’s eyes dim. Both Namjoon and Jimin are developing and in need of nutrition. However, Jungkook is unable to provide what his boys need the most. Sometimes, he is lucky enough to capture a wild animal, but those are very rare occasions.

Jungkook takes a sad sigh. he has trepidations to go deep into the forest, because he knows if he ends up dead, Taehyung won’t bother to raise the boys and will just let them die as well.