My Queen, My Rules - 27
Snitch
Purchase with allocation was one of those unwritten rules in luxury retail. The best-known examples were Hermès' three most sought-after bags: the Birkin, the Kelly, and the Constance.
A one-to-one allocation, for example, meant that if a handbag cost one hundred thousand yuan, customers would first have to purchase another one hundred thousand yuan worth of designated products from the brand before they were even offered the chance to buy the bag. The ratios varied from store to store and city to city.
Of course Ji Mingshu knew the game.
But rules, whether written or implied, existed to be broken.
When you carried a diamond-encrusted Himalaya Birkin, wore a Chaumet diamond ring with Chanel haute couture, and spent at least eight figures every year on luxury goods, every sales associate at every top-tier boutique in the world welcomed you with a smile.
Back when Jiang Chun and Ji Mingshu still couldn't stand each other, she'd heard the rumor that Ji Mingshu never had to play the allocation game at Hermès. She'd assumed Ji Mingshu was either bragging or secretly buying counterfeits.
Instead, Ji Mingshu's flock of plastic sisters immediately buried her beneath an avalanche of brutal education, enthusiastically explaining just how privileged their Shushu was, how all her limited-edition bags came through auctions instead of boutiques, and on and on.
At the end, Ji Mingshu had smiled sweetly and summed everything up with one sentence. "There isn't a luxury item money can't buy. If you can't buy it, it's only because you don't have enough money."
She owned nearly seven hundred Hermès bags, over one hundred of them were her beloved Birkins. Her collection was more complete than most flagship stores. After spending years immersed in the luxury world, not a single sales associate had ever dared tell her she needed allocation.
Yet somehow, in this tiny little Xingcheng, a second-tier cosmetics brand had managed to develop bigger airs than the world's top luxury houses.
A brief silence settled across the first floor of the shopping mall. Customers and beauty advisors from neighboring counters all turned toward Ji Mingshu.
Standing beside her, An Ning was completely dumbfounded.
She was even more stunned than she'd been moments earlier when the saleswoman had demanded allocation.
Her... sister-in-law... was too, too domineering.
The sales assistant who'd had the lipstick thrown near her still hadn't recovered from the shock.
To be fair, although Ji Mingshu had thrown it in her direction, she hadn't actually aimed at her. The tester had landed exactly a hand's width away from her high heels, leaving a streak of rose-red lipstick across the floor while the lipstick itself snapped cleanly in two.
The first to react was another beauty advisor at the counter, an overly flamboyant man. He hurried over, looked his coworker up and down, then turned to Ji Mingshu with obvious hostility.
"Miss, if you have a complaint, you can say it directly. There was no need to throw something. How can you behave like this?"
Everything about him radiated the unmistakable energy of someone who thought working at a cosmetics counter in a second-tier city made him superior to everyone else. Just like his colleague, he had thoroughly mastered the brand's three signature customer service techniques: eye-rolling, sour expressions, and passive-aggressive sarcasm.
Ji Mingshu let out a soft 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 at her before. Now his eyes traveled from head to toe, and his manner immediately became much more restrained.
Even so, he continued standing firmly beside his coworker with the practiced professionalism of customer service. "Miss, allocation is our brand's policy. If you're upset, there's no need to take it out on us. We're just employees. We don't make the rules."
"Our brand's policy?" Ji Mingshu nearly laughed. "Come on. I'll start recording. Say that again."
She turned to An Ning. "Ningning, look up the consumer protection hotline. Let's ask which government agency approved mandatory bundled sales. Give people a little authority and suddenly they think they're something special."
The flamboyant sales associate instantly realized he'd misspoken.
His face turned ghostly pale.
Even at Hermès, if you walked in and asked directly about allocation for a particular bag, the sales associate would simply smile and insist there was no such policy, then subtly suggest browsing the jewelry or ready-to-wear collection first.
No luxury brand would ever openly admit to mandatory bundled purchases.
More importantly, this so-called allocation requirement was nothing more than a recent trend among beauty counters.
The staff were inventing these rules to boost their sales figures.
If headquarters ever found out, the consequences would be disastrous.
One glance was enough for Ji Mingshu to see the guilty panic written all over their faces.
She sneered. "You've gotten awfully full of yourselves for a couple of beauty advisors. Who exactly are those sour faces supposed to impress? Standing behind a counter somehow makes you believe the brand is your personal property, huh? That should qualify as one of the world's greatest delusions."
She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, folded her arms loosely across her waist, and continued in the same calm tone. "I don't feel like wasting any more time with people like you. Apologize to my little sister. When she's satisfied, I'll be satisfied."
An Ning was stunned all over again.
She'd never expected anyone to apologize. But if she suddenly chickened out and said, "It's okay, no need," wouldn't that completely undermine her sister-in-law?
So she could only watch as the two employees exchanged hesitant glances before finally bowing to her with miserable expressions.
"We're very sorry, Miss. Our service was inappropriate. It won't happen again. Please forgive us this once. If you'd still like the lipstick, we'd be happy to package it for you."
An Ning had no idea if she should respond.
Beside her, Ji Mingshu said lazily, "My little sister still doesn't seem very satisfied. So neither am I."
Before she'd even finished speaking, both of them bent even lower.
If their first apology had clearly been forced through gritted teeth. This one practically screamed: Fine, whatever. We'd better stop provoking this woman before things get worse.
An Ning glanced nervously at Ji Mingshu before stammering, "O-Okay... that's enough. I don't want the lipstick anymore."
After being treated like that, anyone who still wanted to wear the brand's lipstick would have to possess the emotional resilience of a ninja turtle.
Since An Ning had accepted the apology, Ji Mingshu decided not to pursue the matter further. She wrapped up the miniature battle before security could arrive.
Afterward, the saleswoman sat behind the counter with a miserable expression, quietly wiping away tears.
Ji Mingshu ignored her completely, she linked arms with An Ning and proceeded to sweep through every cosmetics counter on the floor.
By the time they finished, she'd bought An Ning more than thirty lipsticks.
***
Toward evening, the two of them returned to the Xingcheng University faculty apartments.
The mere thought of the six flights of stairs waiting for her, Ji Mingshu felt her calves threatening to cramp again. She instantly lost all enthusiasm.
So she told An Ning to carry everything upstairs first, claiming she still had a few phone calls to make.
Without suspecting anything, An Ning took the mountain of shopping bags and headed upstairs alone.
Once she disappeared, Ji Mingshu remained in the car and sent Cen Sen a message.
Ji Mingshu: [Are we staying for dinner?]
Ji Mingshu: [I can't climb the stairs anymore. Come carry me upstairs qaq]
Three minutes passed.
No reply.
Just as she resigned herself to climbing all six flights on her own, the passenger door suddenly opened.
She turned.
Cen Sen was standing there.
"...You're not staying for dinner?"
He answered with a simple, "Mm," his expression remained as calm as ever.
Still clutching her phone, Ji Mingshu hesitated before asking, "So... how did things go? You and... them?"
Cen Sen looked at her.
Ji Mingshu immediately straightened her back, arranging her face into an expression that clearly said, I'm only asking out of basic politeness, I don't actually care that much.
"It's alright." He gave another brief, two-word answer.
She nodded perfunctorily and turned to stare out the window.
A little while later, something suddenly occurred to her: It was time for Agent Ji Mingshu to deliver her intelligence report.
She lifted her phone and stared at her chat with Cen Yingshuang.
Three separate times she started typing, three separate times she erased everything before sending it.
Reporting her financial sponsor to his own family somehow filled her with a tiny bit of guilt. She decided to warm up first by gossiping with her sisters.
About five or six minutes into the conversation, she suddenly reached over and patted Cen Sen.
He was resting with his eyes closed. Two pats earned no response, so she leaned closer and actually pinched his eyelids open with her thumb and forefinger.
Unfortunately, the driver from the Xingcheng branch wasn't nearly as experienced as Cen Sen's regular chauffeur.
Catching the couple looking unusually affectionate in the rearview mirror, he became distracted for just a second. By the time he looked back up, the traffic light was right in front of them.
He slammed on the brakes.
Already leaning sideways, Ji Mingshu was thrown forward by the sudden stop. Just as she was about to crash onto the floor, Cen Sen reached out and caught her around the waist.
The world spun, when everything settled, she found herself lying flat across Cen Sen's lap.
Their eyes met.
Neither of them looked away.
"..."
Ji Mingshu stared.
She had to admit. The Dog Man really was ridiculously handsome.
Even from this brutally unflattering angle, there were no signs of a double chin or other face-ruining features.
After nearly half a minute, she finally came back to herself, pushed against his legs to sit upright again, cleared her throat, and got to the point.
"So... there's something I need to tell you. Aunt told me that if you ever contacted the An family, I should let her know because Grandpa's been worried. I agreed because I figured you might not necessarily have contact with them... and even if you did, I probably wouldn't know about it...Who knew…” She paused. "But a person must keep their word, right? So I'm just notifying you that I'm about to snitch."
Cen Sen: "…"
Seeing no reaction, Ji Mingshu stole another glance at him, then picked up her phone, pretending to send the message. In reality, she was still frantically chatting in the group with Jiang Chun and Gu Kaiyang.
Without warning, Cen Sen reached over, took her phone, and said calmly, "There's no need. I'll explain it to Grandpa myself."
He glanced at the screen, intending to message Cen Yingshuang, but paused after seeing the content.
Ji Mingshu: [Do you think I should snitch the Dog Man to the Cen family? If I do, will he cut off my allowance? Isn't betraying your financial sponsor a little unethical?]
Gu Kaiyang: [Here's what you do. Tell your husband directly that you're going to report him to his grandfather. It'll make you seem tormented by conscience, like you're an honest, innocent girl who can't lie. If your husband has even a little common sense, he'll say he'll explain it himself. That way you offend nobody.]
Jiang Chun: [You can do that…?]
Jiang Chun: [Mind blown.jpg]
Jiang Chun: [Editor Gu truly is Editor Gu. As expected from the only career woman among the three of us. Respect!]
Ji Mingshu: [What if he has zero sense and doesn't get the hint?]
Gu Kaiyang: [Is President Cen's image really that terrible in your mind? Surely not?]
Ji Mingshu: [It is that terrible. Never mind. I'll try it first.]
Two minutes later.
Ji Mingshu: [Waaaaah! Gugu, you're my precious little genius! I love you!!!]
Gu Kaiyang: [Another victory for the innocent college girl. /smirking.]
Ji Mingshu: [Honest and Pure Little White Lotus Skill No. 1 unlocked!]
Cen Sen took a slow breath, his eyes drifted upward to the group chat's name.
‘Pure and Innocent College Girls’ Uncensored Chat Group’
---
Comments
Post a Comment