The person Fang Yan is most grateful to in this life is his adoptive mother, Fang Ruonan. Without her, he might have frozen or starved to death long ago. After she dies, her biological children, Liu Xiaojie and Liu Xiaoxue, scheme against him. They make him marry into the family of Xu Meili, daughter of Xu Lao'er, the butcher at the head of the village, so they can take the opportunity to squeeze money out of Xu Lao'er. Out of gratitude to his adoptive mother, he agrees to their demands.
After the wedding, Fang Yan is made to do all the work at Xu Lao'er's home. Before marrying Fang Yan, Xu Meili had slept with another man and gotten pregnant, then blamed it on Fang Yan. She tricks him into working away from home for over a decade and never lets him return for the holidays. Using the money Fang Yan earns, Xu Meili spends her days fooling around with the village men.
After years of hard work away from home, enduring all kinds of hardships, Fang Yan falls seriously ill and has no choice but to return to the village to recuperate. Chen Hongmei, the wife of Xu Meili's eldest brother, takes pity on him and secretly tells him the truth about everything. Chen Hongmei was also Fang Yan's high school classmate, but her family was poor, and her father forced her to marry Xu Meili's eldest brother so he could put her younger brother through school.
After learning the truth, Fang Yan is overcome with unbearable heartbreak. Gradually, he closes his eyes.
When he opens them again, he is back in the summer when he was eighteen.
Looking at the familiar surroundings and feeling his once-young, vigorous body, he vows to live for himself this time and make everything turn out differently.
This protagonist is written according to the author.