#she'll learn to call him tangge but she also likes calling him Ling-ge

[s2pdoktopus]

I just wanna ramble about her

She will receive a courtesy name. It's uncommon for girls to have them but Jiang Cheng insisted that if she's going to be his heir, no one will disrespect her by using her given name. His plan at first when Wei Wuxian returned, just a few months after he finally made up his mind that Jiang Xie will be his successor, was to ask him to name his kid. Actually, he only thought of giving Jiang Xie a courtesy name when Wei Wuxian returned. Maybe two babies named by him will bring him back to the Jiang, back to Jiang Cheng. (If not then... Three times the charm, and A-Xie has been asking for a baby brother anyway—)

And then the golden core reveal happened, and the whole repaying debts and leaving the past in the past are said. Regardless of the feelings of abandonment Jiang Cheng might have felt about that, It's awkward to ask someone who said all those, "hey, can you pick my daughter's courtesy name?"

The name picking doesn't come up again until Jin Ling asks him if he's planning to give Jiang Xie a courtesy name. Jiang Cheng, remembering his plan that never came to be, tries to dismiss Jin Ling's question. A-Xie is just turning six. She'll get her courtesy name at 15, there's no need to pick it yet. Jin Ling argues that he got his picked out before he was even born so what's wrong with picking Jiang Xie's name now. (A detail he never told Jin Ling so clearly the kid had been spending some time with Wei Wuxian.) Then Jin Ling dares to ask why Jiang Cheng made Wei Wuxian choose his courtesy name. Instead of answering that question, Jiang Cheng admits that he was planning to ask Wei Wuxian to pick Jiang Xie's courtesy name, too.

He asks Jin Ling to pick his cousin's courtesy name. As if to divert his nephew's attention from that revelation.

Jin Ling advocates for the reconciliation between his maternal uncles. The more Wei Wuxian tells him of their past and now, with his jiujiu's admission that he cares for Wei Wuxian as much as he did in the past (enough to ask Wei Wuxian to pick his daughter's courtesy name) the more convinced he is that they should reconcile, it would be good for them to. Wei Wuxian picking Jiang Xie's courtesy name could make it happen. But dammit, Jin Ling started this very conversation hoping to ask his Jiujiu to be given the honor of picking his cousin's courtesy name. He had thought of what name she deserves and fits her most since he found out where the name Rulan came from. So Jin Ling will handle his uncles' reconciliation another time, in another way.

He names her Baolian, Precious Lotus.

Jiang Cheng, of course, comments on how on the nose the name is, Lotus Pier's only heir— its young mistress, being named BaoLian.

Jin Ling reminds him that it was him who said that Jiang Xie is born from a lotus flower. He's never gonna let his uncle live it down. It was a disaster, Jiang Xie's vigilant protection of the lotuses. Jin Ling remembers how it got worse, the Senior Jiang disciples corroborating his Jiujiu's joke about A-Xie being found in a flower. They said it was because Jiujiu got blacklisted by the matchmakers and the entire Yunmeng Jiang's worry for an heir brought Jiang Xie to them. The people in the market outside who heard of the hilarity happening chimed in and said Jiang Xie was born out of their love for Sect Leader Jiang.

BaoLian is perfect, as far as Jin Ling is concerned.

Jiang Cheng has his apprehensions but he gave Jin Ling this honor and he isn't about to revoke it. Anyway, Jiang Xie isn't even in double digits yet, Jin Ling can still think of a different name if ever.

(years later, on Jiang Baolian's 15th birthday, Wei Wuxian finds out that it could've been him who named his niece. He has many feelings about this revelation. To cover it up, he elects to whine about it and call Jin Ling a naming rights thief.)

~~~~

As a child, she didn't think much about her situation. She is her A-Die's daughter and she is loved. She has it better than most. Heck! She has it better than A-Ling! What's there to complain about?

But then she grew and gained enough brain cells to think beyond the facts about her being found at the gates that day. Someone must've placed her there. Abandoned her. She consoles herself by thinking that whoever her mother was, she must've intended for her daughter to live a good life. She's bold enough to lie and say that the baby is the Sect Leader's illegitimate child after all. She must've had a good reason. There must be a good reason.

Sometimes the fact that she was abandoned weighs on her though. She consoles herself by thinking that A-Die and Ling-ge want her here. Otherwise she wouldn't have them at all. There were bouts of time when she'd just go to Jiang Cheng and insist on staying by his side because she's feeling things about her origin and feeling insecure of her place in the tiny Jiang family. Sometimes, she wishes to believe that she was indeed born from a lotus out of Yunmeng Jiang's concern and love for her A-Die.

When Jiang Cheng finds out about this, he officially names her his heir. There! He seemed to say. You're my daughter, full stop. Inheriting everything; the riches, the sect, the problems, the responsibility, as is your right as my daughter.

She doesn't fully understand this gesture but it touched her all the same.

~~~~

When Jiang Xie was 14 Jiang Cheng gave her authority over Zidian and said she should start training how to use a whip. Jiang Xie stared at the famous tool she had always wanted to try and use and told him, "I think Ling-ge should inherit Zidian."

Two things popped up in Jiang Cheng's head after hearing her say that. 1) He isn't planning to give Zidian to either of them yet and 2) worry that she's feeling insecure about her place in this family again. "And why is that?"

She shrugs, twisting the ring around her finger but not removing it. "I just think he should."

"Because he's a blood relative? Because I do still have several of those in Meishan."

Jiang Xie looks at him, "What? No! I just think Ling-ge should inherit something from you!"

Jin Ling already has his father's sword, Jiang Cheng thinks. "And what about you?"

"I'll have Yunmeng Jiang."

Jiang Cheng relaxes. Okay, that's - okay.

"I mean, of course I don't want to inherit it yet, and Ling-ge will definitely reject Zidian if you try to give it to him—" she adds, "We prefer not to inherit anything from you, actually—"

"I'm not planning on giving them to you anyway." Jiang Cheng interrupts.

"Oh. Good! Then why are you giving me Zidian?"

"Because," Jiang Cheng starts, "isn't it strange that the Sect Leader of Lanling Jin has authority over my weapon but not my heir?" And you're about to do your first solo night hunt, I want you to have access to Zidian if needed.

"Oh," she says softly again before slipping the ring off her finger.

"Not yet," Jiang Cheng tells her, getting up. "Follow me."

"I thought you just wanted to give me authority over her?" She asks following his command.

"I don't need to make you wear her just for that."

"Then why?"

Jiang Cheng turns to look at his daughter, he feels himself smiling, "don't you want to try her out?"

Jiang Cheng knows that his second command will complain about the decimated training dummies littering the ground, as well as the several broken jars. But Jiang Xie looks powerful in the middle of Zidian's dancing light. Just like Jin Ling when he first did this. And he can't help but feel so proud of the brats he raised. "How does using Zidian feel?"

Jiang Xie laughs, bright and innocent, "She's awesome, A-Die!"

Xie :D