paired conjunctives: . . .之后zhī hòu . . . 才cái
他这么说了之后,我才恍然大悟。
Tā zhè me shuō le zhī hòu,wǒ cái huǎng rán dà wù。
It was only when/after he said so that it dawned on me/I realized.
[1] Yip, P. C., Rimmington, D., Xiaoming, Z., & Henson, R. (2009). Basic Chinese: a grammar and workbook. Taylor & Francis.