You Wait Until I’m Dying to Say You Want to Start Over? Too Late

Traditional historical romance, not a rebirth story. Angsty romance!

(Forced marriage + bride substitution + unhinged male lead + groveling pursuit)

In the late Qing and early Republic era, a young woman named Liu Xue'e is sold by her parents to a wealthy man as his wife. After he dies, she lives quietly as a widow.

A Peking opera troupe comes to the village. Fang Jianping, a handsome martial-role actor, falls in love with her at first sight and promises to take her far away.

The two arrange to elope, but the villagers discover them. In their desperation, they hide in a ruined temple, only to encounter bandits demanding money. Right in front of Liu Xue'e, they kill Fang Jianping.

When she fights back, the bandits shove her down a well. Only then does she learn the truth... Fang Jianping was actually the leader of the bandits, and to him, women were nothing but tools for profit.

After escaping from the well, she conceals her identity and finds work as a maid in a wealthy household in Huzhou.

Three years later, a warlord arrives with his troops. He seizes half of the wealthy merchant's estate and insists on marrying the merchant's daughter. Liu Xue'e takes the young woman's place and marries him, only to discover that the groom is Fang Jianping, who abandoned her three years ago.

They recognize each other, and their fates become entangled once more.

But he never admits he was wrong. He torments and deliberately neglects her time and again, dotes on his concubine, and pushes her heart to the breaking point.

In the end, he is ambushed and utterly defeated. His proud face and voice are both ruined, and he falls to the very bottom. She, meanwhile, remarries a refined and elegant young gentleman, becomes a famous Shanghai star, and lives in boundless wealth.

On the night before he dies, he finally repents to her and asks to start over. But it is too late. Life cannot be lived again.