Episode Summary
In this episode, the arrival of the quiet Jiang Qiaoxi disrupts Lin Yingtao's life. Her initial fear of him exposing her mischief evolves into a mission of forced kindness. The main plot revolves around a school assignment about names, which reveals the tragic backstory of Qiaoxi's family and the neglect he suffers. In a touching climax, Yingtao discovers a powerful meaning for his name and shares it with him, offering him a sense of identity and kindness he desperately needed.
Spoiler Alert
"Our Generation" Episode 2: The Meaning of a Name
The story continues with Lin Yingtao, the mischievous "big sister" of her group, whose life takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of the quiet and reserved Jiang Qiaoxi. After being caught by Qiaoxi during a failed attempt to steal books from the library, Yingtao is shocked to find him at her house for dinner. It turns out Qiaoxi's father is her dad's new boss, and Qiaoxi is transferring to her school. Terrified that he will expose her, Yingtao begins a campaign of kindness, urging her friends to be nice to him, all based on the childish fear that if Qiaoxi is forced to leave, he will "take her away" with him to face punishment.
Yingtao introduces Qiaoxi to her small town and her crew. There's Du Shang, who lives with his mother; Qin Yeyun, a girl Yingtao dislikes because she hits hard; Yu Qiao, whose house is always crowded with family; and Cai Fangyuan, who loves good food. She also introduces him to Qin Yeyun's father, Uncle Qin, who runs a small shop after a leg injury and practices Qigong, which Yingtao finds amazing.
The episode reveals Yingtao's naive and imaginative side through a past incident. She once wrote in a school essay that she was dying because she encountered a snake that jumped higher than her—a local superstition she believed to be fatal. Her terrified teacher rushed to her home, only for everyone to reassure her that it was just a silly myth.
The central conflict of the episode emerges from a school assignment where students must share the meaning behind their names. While all the other children have stories, Jiang Qiaoxi has no idea what his name means. At a later dinner between the two families, his father casually explains that Qiaoxi was an unplanned child, and his name was simply lifted from a poem he saw in a newspaper.
However, Yingtao overhears a heartbreaking conversation between her parents later that night. They reveal that Qiaoxi's parents had a firstborn son, Jiang Mengchu, a child prodigy who died young. His death devastated them, and Qiaoxi was born into their unresolved grief. They neglect him emotionally, to the point that his father doesn't even know his correct birthday, still fixated on the memory of his first son.
Deeply moved by this, Yingtao takes out a large dictionary and looks up the character "Qiao" . She discovers it means "a high, pointed mountain." The next day, she takes Qiaoxi to her favorite spot, a beautiful mountaintop. There, she gives him a gift no one else has: a meaning for his name. She tells him that his name signifies something tall, strong, and beautiful. Although it begins to rain, preventing them from seeing the sunset she loves, the moment is powerful. As the rain falls, Qiaoxi asks her to describe the sunset to him, forging a new, profound connection between them.
