Marry Him in Her Place

Set in Republic of China

FL wants revenge and uses ML as a shield.

SML is evil and is close friend/brother to ML in both dramas.

In both dramas FL´s father gets killed by SML.

In both dramas FL is initially engaged to SML.

In terms of romance however, Spring Rewritten is much more romantic with more emphasis to mainleads love-story.

Set in Republic of China

FL wants revenge and uses ML as a shield.

SML is evil and is close friend/relative to ML in both dramas.

In both dramas FL´s family gets massacred.

In both dramas FL is initially engaged to SML.

Loved both for the chemistry betweeen FL and ML and the dark gothic setting <3

Same lead actress as well as plot where female lead is killed but comes back as someone else and the male lead becomes both her punching bag and reliable backing. Great chemistry in both though the plot of Marry Him in Her Place carries better.

the setting is different (from a historical setting to a modern republic of china), however it has some sort of similarities which i will list.

- face-swapping ; both the female leads has their faces swapped for a pretty similar reason (to serve a man, unfortunately)
- both female leads do quite well despite not being the brightest ones, not too naive but does need constant saving from the male leads.
- both has wang ze xuan playing as an antagonist (he was still a womanizing jerk with petty schemes), so a familiar face might convince you to watch the other.

i'll finalize the recommendation after i finish them both!