Have Eddie Come Out

"So?"

Lu Chuan turned his head and looked at the male sales associate.

His tone was mild, without a trace of anger.

The question made the associate pause. Then he resumed his professional manner.

"I just wanted to let you know that the individual pieces in this collection are quite expensive. If you'd like, I can show you our basic styles first."

That was a tactful way of putting it.

Plainly, he was afraid Lu Chuan would pick out a pile of clothes, only for there to be no point in trying them on.

In his previous life, Lu Chuan would probably have pulled out his card at that point. Not to buy clothes, but to save face. The more the man warned him, the more pieces he would have taken, preferably paying for them on the spot to forcefully turn the tables.

Now, he couldn't even be bothered to explain.

Whether he had money or not was never something he needed to tell a stranger.

Lu Chuan glanced at the associate, his tone even.

"I'm not used to being served by a novice."

"Have Eddie come out."

For the first time, the associate's expression changed.

He froze, as if he hadn't heard correctly, then took another look at Lu Chuan.

"You mean... store manager Eddie?"

"Mm."

Lu Chuan remained where he was, still holding the clothes.

Of course, he wasn't a customer of this store.

It was just that, in his previous life, one of his drinking buddies had also gone by the English name Eddie. Bored at the time, Lu Chuan had looked up a fair number of things related to the name, and had later browsed through the gossip about this store while he was at it.

Aethel was a low-profile brand to begin with. Few people outside its circles knew it, and there wasn't much fun in that. The really interesting things were the bits of gossip that weren't written down in the store or posted on the official website, but circulated only among longtime customers.

Like the store manager, Eddie.

And a few hidden rules for VIC customers.

He had looked them up so he could act knowledgeable at the drinking table and poke fun at his friend with the same name. He hadn't expected to actually use them today.

The associate clearly didn't dare respond offhand anymore.

He quietly said, "Please wait a moment," and turned toward the back, walking considerably faster than before.

A few minutes later, a man came out from the back.

He was tall and wore a dark suit, with crisp lines at the shoulders and trousers. His hair was combed perfectly into place, and he wore a standard professional smile, neither warm nor cold.

After approaching, he looked first at Lu Chuan, then at the associate beside him, before speaking.

"Hello, I'm Eddie, the manager of the Jiangcheng store."

"I hear you were looking for me."

Lu Chuan nodded and casually draped the clothes over the armrest of a nearby sofa.

"Yes. My surname is Lu."

Eddie didn't immediately adopt an overly deferential attitude.

He knew everyone who shopped at the store, and he had also seen customers come in pretending to be familiar with it, dropping names at random and trying to gain face by saying, "I know your manager." The smile remained on his face, but his eyes were thoughtful. Clearly, he was still sizing Lu Chuan up.

Lu Chuan didn't keep him guessing for long.

"Have the fabric reserves for this season already been allocated to VICs?"

Eddie's smile faltered slightly.

Lu Chuan continued, "And there's that hidden code in the hand-stitched silk thread. You can't see it on ordinary ready-to-wear pieces, but there's a workshop mark where the stitching is finished on the inside. Orders from that workshop in southern Italy can still go through a queue-free channel this year, can't they?"

The store fell silent.

The male associate beside them stood even straighter, his face a little stiff.

This time, Eddie took another discreet look at Lu Chuan.

None of that was part of the brand story or the sales training script.

Forget ordinary customers-even many full-time store employees might not know about it.

Aethel had never been a brand that sold on the strength of its logo. Many of its rules circulated only within its innermost customer circle. Few people knew them, and even fewer could state them so precisely.

Reserved fabric.

The hidden code in the hand-stitched silk thread.

The fast-track channel for a designated workshop.

Once those things were out in the open, this was no longer simply a matter of "knowing the brand."

Something inside Eddie went taut.

At his age, dressed like that, he had walked in without explaining himself, arguing, or saying a single word about being looked down on. The moment he spoke, he had gone straight to that level. There were only two possibilities.

Either he had done a great deal of research specifically for this.

Or he was already part of that circle.

But the way Lu Chuan stood there didn't seem to fit the first possibility.

People putting on an act always pushed too hard at the crucial moment. Their eyes, their tone, their pauses would all unconsciously carry a hint of "See how much I know?"

Lu Chuan didn't. He seemed merely too lazy to say more, casually tossing out what needed to be said.

Eddie had already made his judgment.

This was no ordinary customer.

Still less did he seem like someone with new money.

It seemed more likely that someone in his family was an Aethel VIC, and he had learned these things from them.

The last trace of insincerity vanished from Eddie's professional smile, and his whole demeanor grew more subdued.

"My apologies, Mr. Lu."

"Our store's reception just now was improper."

The male associate beside him went pale and was about to speak, but Eddie raised a hand to stop him.

"Go clear out a fitting room," Eddie said mildly. "And bring over the pieces that arrived today."

"Yes."

Only after the man left did Eddie turn back to Lu Chuan, his tone completely different from before.

"Please try them on first. I'll personally help you with the sizes and styling. I'll give you the highest VIC discount within the store's authority."

Lu Chuan didn't stand on ceremony.

"All right."

After that, things were simple.

Eddie's eye really was much better than his own. He could put together outfits almost at a glance: which fabrics were suitable for the current weather, which cuts looked sharper when worn, which colors worked for everyday use, and which wouldn't look too deliberate at school.

Lu Chuan tried on several outfits and barely hesitated.

He picked out more than a dozen pieces in all: T-shirts, knitwear, shirts, trousers, and light jackets, all in colors like white, gray, navy, and dark brown. They looked understated but felt comfortable on. The fine texture of the fabric against his skin was on an entirely different level from ordinary ready-to-wear clothing.

In his previous life, he had looked down most on spending a fortune on things whose value "didn't show."

Now he thought it was worth it.

Spending money where his skin could feel it was far more reassuring than spending it for other people's eyes.

Eddie stood to one side with the list, growing more convinced that his judgment had been right. People of genuine refinement never bought clothes for show. They cared about the feel, the cut, and whether they would want to keep wearing them. From beginning to end, Lu Chuan hadn't once asked, "Does this have a logo?"

In the end, the clothes came to more than three hundred thousand yuan.

Eddie didn't even raise an eyebrow. If anything, he seemed relieved.

That amount was nothing to a truly top-tier customer, but Lu Chuan could accurately name things only VICs knew and had made such a decisive purchase on his first visit. That was already enough to say a great deal.

Before checkout, Eddie suddenly said, "Please wait a moment," and turned toward the back.

A few minutes later, he returned with three small boxes.

One contained a handcrafted patchwork leather charm, another a limited-edition cloth doll, and the third a small artisan figurine.

None of them looked particularly eye-catching. They were even a little too plain.

Eddie put them on the table and spoke evenly.

"These are internal gifts from the store. They aren't sold to the public and are given only to selected recipients."

"I hope you won't find them unworthy."

When Lu Chuan saw the cloth doll, his gaze paused briefly.

He remembered it.

A year later in his previous life, an international celebrity had boosted Aethel's sales, and this batch of little items, originally distributed only as gifts, had suddenly caught the attention of collectors. The doll and figurine in particular were so scarce that their prices were later driven all the way up to ten million yuan.

This was a genuine bargain find.

But Lu Chuan showed none of it on his face. He simply reached out and accepted the boxes.

"Thanks."

Hearing that, Eddie felt even more assured.

An ordinary person at this point would have either pressed for details about their origin or pretended to decline. At the very least, they would have shown some curiosity at seeing something unfamiliar. But Lu Chuan simply accepted them, as if that were how such things ought to be handled.

That reaction made him seem all the more accustomed to such things.

After buying the clothes, Lu Chuan had been ready to leave, but his gaze happened to fall on the home goods section on the other side.

He had bought clothes, so it was time to upgrade the things at home too.

The house at Quiet Garden was already his, and he didn't want to keep making do with bedding, pillows, and quilts either.

"Let's look over there too," Lu Chuan said.

Eddie immediately replied, "Of course. If you'd like, I can take you over."

Over the next half hour, Lu Chuan picked out two complete sets of bedding, one for home and one for the dorm.

Egyptian cotton sheets and duvet covers, goose-down quilts, neck-support pillows, and a few everyday personal-care products and small household items. Finally, he bought a backpack and a suitcase, all no-frills flagship models.

Comfort was not something that could fool anyone.

Whether he was comfortable throughout the day mattered far more than whether there were letters on his clothes.

When the final bill came out, it was exactly eight hundred thousand yuan.

Lu Chuan handed over his card, signed, and paid in quick succession. When the machine beeped, he looked at the shopping bags of all sizes and found himself in a surprisingly good mood.

No big logos.

No conspicuous packaging.

And nothing he could take out to show off.

But once he brought these things home, with the clothes against his skin, the bedding spread on the bed, and the pillow beneath his neck, the comfort was all his.

This was what spending money should be like.

He wasn't buying the words "Young Master Lu."

He was buying a way of life.

After everything was packed, Eddie personally arranged for two store employees to take all the shopping bags to the underground garage and place them neatly in the trunk of the white Continental GT.

Standing outside the car, Eddie closed the trunk for Lu Chuan. His attitude had become far more deferential than when Lu Chuan first entered the store.

"Mr. Lu, here's my card. If you need anything in the future, you can contact me directly."

"All right."

Lu Chuan got into the car and casually placed the cloth doll on the passenger seat.

The moment the door closed, the sounds outside disappeared.

He glanced at the little thing on the passenger seat, inconspicuous now but destined to multiply many times in value, and the corner of his mouth moved slightly.

The house was bought.

The car was picked up.

He had made enough quick money.

The foundation was more or less in place too.

What he needed to prepare was essentially ready.

Lu Chuan started the car and drove slowly out of the mall's underground garage. Night had fallen, and the lights of Jiangcheng came on one by one. As the streets slipped past the window, he felt himself relaxing more and more.

Tomorrow.

It would be the day he officially reported to school.