My Queen, My Rules - 27

Snitch

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Allocation was an unwritten, open secret in the luxury world. The most famous example was Hermès and its three holy grail bags: the Birkin, the Kelly, and the Constance.

A 1:1 allocation, for instance, meant that to have a chance at buying a bag worth a hundred thousand, you had to first purchase another hundred thousand dollars' worth of the brand's other designated products—homeware, jewelry, ready-to-wear. The ratios varied from place to place, store to store.

Ji Mingshu naturally knew about this practice. But rules, written or unwritten, were made to be broken.

When you were a top-tier socialite who carried diamond-encrusted Himalaya Birkins, wore Chaumet rings, donned Chanel haute couture, and had a minimum annual spend in the eight figures, the sales associates at any luxury boutique in the world would only ever greet you with open doors and radiant smiles.

Back when Jiang Chun and Ji Mingshu were still on bad terms, Jiang Chun heard that Ji Mingshu bought Hermès without any pre-spend requirement and thought she was either boasting or secretly buying fakes.

The result was that she’d been brutally educated by one of Ji Mingshu’s plastic sisters, who launched into a tirade about how privileged their Shushu was, how her limited editions came straight from auctions, blah blah blah.

In the end, Ji Mingshu summed it up with a sweet smile, "There's no luxury item money can't buy. If you can't buy it, it's because you don't have enough money.”

She owned nearly seven hundred Hermès bags, over a hundred of which were her beloved Birkins. Her collection was more complete than most boutiques. After years immersed in that world, she had genuinely never encountered a single tactless sales assistant who dared to mention allocation to her.

So coming to this backwater of Xingcheng and running into this was truly a new low. A second-tier makeup brand, its prestige not even up to par, was acting more pretentious with its rules than the true luxury houses.

A pocket of silence fell over the first floor of the department store. Customers and beauty advisors from other counters all turned to look at Ji Mingshu.

An Ning, standing beside her, was completely stunned, even more so than when the sales assistant had told her about the pre-spend requirement.

Her... sister-in-law... was too, too domineering.

The sales assistant who'd had the lipstick thrown near her was also stunned, not yet recovered.

To be precise, the lipstick had been thrown in her direction, but not at her. The tester landed a hand's width away, right beside her high heels, leaving a rose-red mark on the floor, the bullet cleanly snapped in two.

It was the effeminate man at the same counter who reacted faster. He hurried over, checking on his colleague, then asked Ji Mingshu quite rudely, "Miss, if you have a complaint, you can say it directly. There's no need for violence. What kind of person are you?"

This effeminate man radiated the aura of a small-city, know-it-all, snobbish "gaydar" type. He shared with his colleague the brand's three signature customer service treasures: the eye-roll, the stink face, and the passive-aggressive tone.

Ji Mingshu gave a light laugh. "My attitude is a mirror. You show me what you are, and I'll show you what you get."

The man hadn't looked closely before. Now, scanning Ji Mingshu from head to toe, his attitude suddenly became more restrained. But he still stood united with his colleague, adopting an officious tone. "Miss, allocation is our brand's policy. There's no need to take your anger out on us! We're just lowly employees; we can't influence decisions from above!"

"Brand policy?" Ji Mingshu almost laughed in anger. "Here, let me start a recording. Say that again. Ningning, look up the Consumer Association's number. Let's ask which brand in our country has been approved to force pre-spend requirements and coercive selling. Give you an inch and you think you're a ruler."

The man had spoken without thinking and knew it was a mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. Hearing Ji Mingshu take it so seriously, his face instantly paled.

After all, even at Hermès, if you directly asked about the pre-spend requirement for a specific bag, the sales assistant would only smile and say, "We don't do allocation items here," before meaningfully suggesting you look at their jewelry or ready-to-wear.

It could be said that no brand dared state openly that forced bundling was official policy.

More crucially, allocation was just a recent trend among counters; these BAs were pushing it to hit their sales targets. If this really got escalated to the brand headquarters, the consequences were unthinkable.

Ji Mingshu saw right through their guilt. She scoffed lightly. "Working behind a counter has really gone to your heads. Who are you rolling your eyes and pulling faces for? Standing there all day, you start thinking you own the brand—that should be listed among the world's top three delusions."

She flipped her hair, arms crossed casually in front of her, and continued nonchalantly, "I can't be bothered to waste more breath on the likes of you. Apologize to my sister. If she's satisfied, I'm satisfied."

An Ning was stunned once again.

She hadn't expected an apology. But if she played the coward now and said, "No need, no need," wouldn't that be slapping her sister-in-law in the face?

So she could only watch as the man and woman, after a long, hesitant exchange of glances, bowed to her with extremely ugly expressions and said, "We apologize, miss. Our service attitude was lacking. It will never happen again. Please forgive us this once. As for the lipstick, if you still want it, we can wrap it up for you.”

An Ning didn't know if she should respond.

Ji Mingshu stood to the side, her tone mild. "My sister doesn't seem entirely satisfied. So, I'm not satisfied either.”

Before she finished speaking, the two bowed even deeper. If the previous apology had been gritted through teeth, this one carried a sense of "whatever, let's just take the L; provoking this woman won't end well."

An Ning glanced at Ji Mingshu before stammering, "Oh, i-it's fine. We don't want the lipstick."

Only a ninja turtle-level warrior could endure such nonsense and still wear that brand's lipstick.

Since An Ning accepted, Ji Mingshu didn't press further, quickly ending this small skirmish before security could arrive.

Afterward, the salesgirl sat behind her counter, crying her face off. Ji Mingshu ignored her completely, linking arms with An Ning and sweeping through every counter on the floor, picking out over thirty lipsticks for her.

---

In the evening, Ji Mingshu and An Ning returned to the Xingcheng University faculty apartments.

The mere thought of climbing six floors made Ji Mingshu's calves cramp in protest. She was somewhat reluctant.

So she asked An Ning to take the things up first, excusing herself by saying she had a few calls to make.

An Ning, unsuspecting, took the spoils of Ji Mingshu's shopping spree upstairs.

Once she was gone, Ji Mingshu sat in the car and texted Cen Sen.

Ji Mingshu: [Are we staying for dinner?]

Ji Mingshu: [I can't climb the stairs. Come down and get me qaq]

She waited three minutes. No reply.

Just as she was about to bite the bullet and climb upstairs, the car door beside her suddenly opened. She turned and met Cen Sen's gaze.

"You… you're not staying for dinner?"

Cen Sen gave an "Mmm," his expression neutral.

Ji Mingshu, still holding her phone, asked hesitantly, "How did it go… with you and them?"

Cen Sen glanced at her.

Ji Mingshu paused, immediately sat up straight, and put on an "I'm just asking out of politeness, I don't actually care that much" face.

"It's alright." He gave another brief, two-word answer.

Ji Mingshu gave a perfunctory nod and looked out the window.

A moment later, she suddenly remembered something. Her spy mission seemed to have reached a critical intel-delivery moment.

She raised her phone, stared at the WeChat interface for a bit, and after three rounds of hesitation, finally tapped into Cen Yingshuang's chat.

But after typing a few characters, she seemed to think of something else, held down the delete key, and cleared the content.

Reporting on her financial sponsor did give her a tiny twinge of guilt. She decided to chat with her girls for a while first to warm up.

After about five or six minutes of chatting, Ji Mingshu suddenly turned and patted Cen Sen.

He had his eyes closed, resting. She patted him twice with no response, so she leaned over, using her index finger and thumb to forcibly pry one of his eyes open.

Who would have thought the driver from the Xingcheng branch wasn't as professional as Cen Sen's usual chauffeur? Catching what he thought was an intimate moment between the couple in the rearview mirror, he got distracted and found himself at a red light in the last seconds, having to slam on the brakes!

Ji Mingshu was already leaning to the side. The sudden braking inertia threw her forward. Just as she was about to hit the seat in front, Cen Sen reached out and pulled her towards him.

After a dizzying spin, she found herself lying face up on Cen Sen's lap, staring directly into his eyes.

"…"

Ji Mingshu didn't blink.

Huh. This dog man was actually quite good-looking. Even from this unflattering, deathly angle, there were no signs of a double chin or other face-ruining features.

After half a minute, she finally snapped out of it. Pushing herself up against his thighs, she sat up properly, cleared her throat, and got down to business.

"I, I need to tell you something. Actually, it's just… Aunt Yingshuang told me to notify her if you had any contact with the An family; Grandpa is quite uneasy about it. At the time, I thought you might not necessarily have contact with them, and even if you did, you might not tell me, so I agreed. Who knew…” She paused. "But a person must keep their word, right? So I'm just notifying you that I'm going to squeal."

Cen Sen: "…"

Seeing him silent, Ji Mingshu stole another glance at him, then picked up her phone, pretending to send the tip. In reality, she was still multitasking, furiously chatting in the group chat with Jiang Chun and Gu Kaiyang.

But Cen Sen, without warning, suddenly snatched her phone. He said mildly, "No need. I'll explain to Grandfather myself.”

He glanced at the phone screen, intending to message Cen Yingshuang, but paused after seeing the content.

Ji Mingshu: [Should I squeal to the Cens? Will this dog man cut off my funds if I do? Is it bad form to betray your financial sponsor?]

Gu Kaiyang: [Here's what you do. Just tell your man straight up that you're going to snitch to his grandfather. That way, you'll seem tormented by conscience, showing you're a straightforward, unpretentious, innocent girl. If your man has any sense, he'll say he'll handle it himself. That way, you don't offend anyone.]

Jiang Chun: [You can do that…?]

Jiang Chun: [Mind blown.jpg]

Jiang Chun: [Editor Gu is truly Editor Gu! No wonder you're the only one among us three with work experience, a true career woman! Respect!]

Ji Mingshu: [But what if he has zero sense?]

Gu Kaiyang: [Is President Cen's image in your mind really that low? Surely not?]

Ji Mingshu: [It is that low. Whatever, I'll try it first.]

Two minutes later.

Ji Mingshu: [Waaah! Gu Gu, my brilliant treasure! I love you!!!]

Gu Kaiyang: [Another victory for the Pure College Girl. /Snicker]

Ji Mingshu: [Skill 'Frank and Innocent Little White Flower' acquired!]

Cen Sen took a moment, then looked at the group name—

‘Pure College Girls’ Uncensored Chat Group’

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