My Ex-Husband Wanted Me to Go to Jail for His Childhood Sweetheart; After Rebirth, I'm Not Marrying Him

Shen Qi regains consciousness at the age of nineteen, realizing she has returned to the day she had secretly followed Fang Yi to the ice rink. In her previous life, she died alone and riddled with illness at thirty-five, thanks to Fang Yi’s deceit and betrayal. Now, reborn, she sits on a rest chair behind Fang Yi and his friend Tian Jingxiang, listening to them mock her as a hopeless country bumpkin who clings to him. Fang Yi reveals he only intends to get a marriage certificate to appease his dying grandfather, planning to divorce her afterward, and openly shows affection for Shen Baozhu, the girl who was switched with Shen Qi at birth. Furious, Shen Qi smashes a soda bottle over Fang Yi’s head, then walks away without looking back.

Shen Qi was originally the biological daughter of the Shen family, but a nurse switched her with Shen Baozhu from the poor Zhou family. At seventeen, Shen Qi accidentally saved Grandpa Fang and was invited to the military compound, where she met her true family. However, the Shen family chose to keep Shen Baozhu as their daughter, publicly claiming Shen Qi was a lost twin, while continuing to dote on Shen Baozhu and ignore Shen Qi. Shen Qi was never accepted; her room was a tiny, damp storage space. In her previous life, she desperately sought approval from the Shen family and loved Fang Yi blindly, but her reward was a loveless marriage, endless humiliation, and finally being tricked into taking the blame for a crime Shen Baozhu committed. She spent five years in prison, was divorced against her will, and died in misery.

Determined not to repeat her mistakes, Shen Qi first buys herself a skewer of candied hawthorns—something she had craved but no one ever bought for her. She then heads to the Fang residence to end her engagement with Fang Yi. At the door, Ding Mengshu, Fang Yi’s mother, pretends to be polite but clearly despises Shen Qi. She invites Shen Qi to go shopping, but Shen Qi refuses, showing no interest in ingratiating herself. When Grandpa Fang wakes, Shen Qi gently tells him she wants to void the engagement, insisting that she and Fang Yi are not compatible. She avoids mentioning Fang Yi’s misdeeds to prevent Grandpa Fang from getting angry and falling ill, as happened in her past life. Grandpa Fang tries to dissuade her, suggesting that Fang Yi must have upset her again and promising to discipline him. Shen Qi does not argue further, knowing that when Fang Yi returns with a wounded head, Grandpa Fang will understand her resolve is firm.

After leaving the Fang home, Shen Qi returns to the Shen family villa. She finds her youngest brother, Shen Jinan, lounging on the sofa watching television. He sneers at her upon seeing her. Without hesitation, Shen Qi strides over and slaps him hard across the face, knocking him to the ground. This is her first act of asserting herself against a family that has always dismissed her. In her previous life, she had endured their contempt and tried to please them, but it only led to more suffering. Now she understands that she must stand up for herself. She no longer craves their love or Fang Yi’s attention. Her only goal is to live her own life, free from the entanglements that destroyed her in the past.

Shen Qi’s rebirth grants her not only a second chance but also the knowledge of what lies ahead. She knows Grandpa Fang’s health will fail in a few years, and she is determined to avoid the false accusations and prison that await her if she remains tied to Fang Yi. She recalls the worst moment of her past life: after she was released from prison, she returned to find Fang Yi and Shen Baozhu in an intimate embrace, with Fang’s parents smiling approvingly. When she refused to sign the divorce papers, she was forcibly thrown out. Eventually, she was coerced into signing, left with nothing but bitterness and loneliness. Now, she vows never to be a victim again. Every action she takes—from the bottle attack to the slap—is a declaration that she will no longer tolerate betrayal or disrespect.

As the story begins, Shen Qi is still in the early stages of her new life, but her transformation is immediate. She has already severed her emotional dependence on Fang Yi and is actively breaking the engagement peacefully to avoid causing Grandpa Fang harm. She has also begun to confront the Shen family’s injustice by punishing her brother’s rudeness. The narrative establishes her as a strong-willed woman who has learned the hard way that she cannot trust others to care for her; she must care for herself. The central conflict is clear: Shen Qi versus a world that has always undervalued her—represented by Fang Yi’s cruelty, the Shen family’s favoritism, and Fang Yi’s mother’s disdain. Her main goal is to reclaim her autonomy and build a life on her own terms. The ending of the story implied by her rebirth is one of redemption and self-empowerment, though the full resolution remains to unfold.