Midnight Council

It was a cold and moonless night, and Tianjing city slumbered on like a great beast, unconcerned with the preoccupations of its denizens. While the world was quiet and sleepy, not everyone was sticking to their own beds. Dogs were on the roam, bats were on the hunt, and thieves were on the prowl.

And in room 221 of the Tianjing University girls' dorm, a large group had assembled, packed so tightly that the meeting was spilling out into the corridor.

"It's been a month, and they still haven't done anything!" one voice spoke up.

"The university has always been incompetent. If we rely on them, the thefts will never stop," another added angrily.

"I have lost three pairs just this week," a teary-eyed girl complained. "If this goes on, I won't have anything left to wear."

"You haven't been putting them out to dry, have you? That's just asking for it at a time like this," said Chen Yi, one of the room's official inhabitants.

"And what if she has?" retorted Sun XiaoXiao, another resident of the room. "Why does she have to change her routine because of that pervert?"

Before Chen Yi could argue back, the third tenant of room 221, Mei Lin, cut her off, "Enough! This isn't time for bickering. If the university can't do it, we will solve the underwear thefts ourselves."

"But what about that patrol idea?" Someone in the back asked. "That seemed promising."

Every eye in the room, with the same question in mind, turned to look up at the bunk bed, for on top of it, like Genghis Khan holding court in his palatial ger, sat An Jing.

She was not the biggest girl in the room, but she was well built, even if a little on the slender side. At first glance she looked like a cute and bubbly eighteen year old college student, but her eyes told a completely different story. They were the eyes of a predator: keen, observant, and cunning. And despite wearing pyjamas with fluffy little dogs on them—a gift from her sister, An Mei—she carried the ultimate authority here.

"President Zhou said we won't be allowed to do the patrols without a faculty mentor."

"We asked many of the faculty," Mei Lin continued, picking up where An Jing had just left off. "None of them wanted to get involved. Some are too old, some are too busy, and many just don't want to be bothered. It's no use."

"But what about Professor Li Wei?" a voice in the crowd spoke up.

"Yeah! He seems like a nice guy," another added enthusiastically.

"He is just twenty-two! Can you believe that? Just four years older than me," said a giggling, starstruck girl. "He is young, handsome, smart..."

"And happily married to my sister." An Jing cut her off with a low growl and a menacing look. The girl immediately fell silent and blended into the crowd.

"But Jingjing, isn't that perfect?" Sun XiaoXiao asked. "He is your family. So he won't refuse our request. We can have our faculty mentor and start the patrols."

"No. My brother-in-law is off limits."

"But Xiao-Jing, he is the only option we have left," Chen Yi added her voice to Sun XiaoXiao's.

"You don't understand," An Jing replied. "Professor Li would be the worst possible faculty mentor." She looked around the room at her assembled court. "My brother-in-law is a certified genius. If you give him a jar, he can tell you a hundred different ways to open it and figure out how much force you need in each case. But he is the last person you should ask to open it for you. His world is theoretical. It's best not to bother him with practical problems."

"But Jingjing, we can't keep living like this," a girl in the crowd pleaded.

"Please, Jingjing. This situation is so terrible. I can't even tell my parents about this. It's so humiliating," the girl who had lost three pairs said, echoing the previous sentiment.

"Please, Jingjing!" Other girls now took up the call, hoping to move their leader's heart.

An Jing looked at Chen Yi and Sun XiaoXiao, who were giving her puppy dog eyes. She then looked at Mei Lin, who simply shrugged and said, "He doesn't have to do anything; just be in charge on paper."

An Jing sighed, then she looked contemplative for a few seconds before finally saying, "All right. We will ask him."