Why Is Jin Ling The Way That He Is (85% Jiang Cheng By Mass), Despite Having Presumably Been Raised Mostly

Why is Jin Ling the way that he is (85% Jiang Cheng by mass), despite having presumably been raised mostly in Lanling - you know, the sect he’s going to inherit? A series of headcanons by me:

For at least a year following his brother’s the Yiling Patriarch’s apparent death, Jiang Cheng had a vibe like he was one word, half a sideways glance, a single split hair from snapping and killing everyone in this room and then himself. This only intensified when he was holding his sister’s son. And he held his sister’s son whenever physically possible. So they, uh. They let him keep the baby. Jin Guangshan was furious when Sect Leader Jiang just kind of stormed into Carp Tower and took his grandson, and everyone let him, but he finally saw Jiang Cheng face to face and it was like…you know what you can keep him. It’s okay. It wasn’t even a politically manipulable rage, it was so ABUNDANTLY clear that anyone who tried would also die. So Jin Ling lived in Lotus Pier and was carried around by his uncle like 24/7.

When this was starting to abate, Jin Guangyao’s son, Jin Rusong, was born. Coincidentally and tragically, Jin Guangshan dies shortly thereafter. 

Not in words, no, goodness no. Not even in actions. Maybe in non-actions - in Jin Ling only being invited to spend about one week out of every four in Carp Tower, in Jiang Cheng making no real move to find a wife - Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao have an agreement for several years. If one day Jin Ling were to give up to his cousin his claim on LanlingJin, and inherit YunmengJiang instead…that’d be okay. 

Then Jin Rusong dies and Jin Guangyao is a practical man, and begrudgingly so is Jiang Cheng: Jin Ling really needs to be spending more like 3 weeks in Carp Tower to every 1 in Lotus Pier. He needs to be raised by his father’s family, of whom he will one day be the head.

But it’s TOO LATE! The boy has spent his impactful first like five years learning to be shouty and straightforward! And moreover, Jiang Cheng has, uh, opinions about things, so little Jin Ling’s gonna hear Jin Guangyao and Qin Su’s advice to, like, smile and make friends even when he doesn’t want to, and he’ll be like, “well that’s DUMB. I WON’T.” They’re probably genuinely trying to parent him and still! This is how it goes! 

Maybe it would’ve sunk in eventually, but he kept going back to Lotus Pier for a week out of every month for positive reinforcement - because you cannot actually tell me that even when Jin Ling was at his brattiest, the entirety of Jiang Sect didn’t pick up on their sect leader’s energy of “this child will be CHERISHED or YOU WILL ALL DIE.” Not, you know, explicitly cherished, but…it beats the annoying court politics and terrible cousins of Carp Tower hands down

(in fact, you KNOW Jin Guangyao could’ve somehow arranged for Jin Ling to have more friends at Carp Tower, and instead he actively chose to be sure he would be Jin Ling’s only real ally there, and tbh that’s why he needed to die.)

TLDR Jin Ling imprinted early on the angry grape and part of that imprinting meant he was resistant to all other options for how to be, and also it got continuously reinforced by the directions from which he did and did not receive love

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