Mobilization

Another night, and another meeting. But this time the prospective patrollers were not assembled in An Jing's room but in the large common room of the dorm. The ghostly light of the projector played an image of the statuesque and imposing Li Hua on the wall, while the girls sat on the floor and listened intently.

"And that's how you do it," said the steely voice of Li Hua, concluding her presentation. "Remember, girls. Catching the perp is important, but so is protecting yourself and not breaking the law while you do it."

The teenagers nodded along, unwilling to contradict the CLO of the Wu Long group.

"Are there any questions?" Li Hua asked the assembled students. None answered her. Li Hua's remorseless gaze scanned them one by one as if probing them for their secret sins. When she was satisfied of their truthfulness, she said, "All right. Be careful on the patrol."

Then her eyes turned to An Jing, who was sitting in the middle of the front row. "Xiao-Jing," Li Hua said, "Take care."

An Jing nodded knowingly and replied, "I will, Er-jie. Don't worry."

With that, the screen turned black, and the girls let out a collective sigh of relief as if they had just finished military service under a particularly ruthless drill sergeant.

An Jing got up and walked to the front. "All right. Now that legal training is done, we move on to the next step. Teams!"

The girls started murmuring excitedly among themselves.

"There are going to be three teams," An Jing continued. "Team 1 is in charge of patrolling. I will personally lead the patrols each night. Mei Lin will prepare the patrol routes and assign duties to everyone."

The girls looked at Mei Lin and clapped appreciatively.

"Team 2 is in charge of..." An Jing pointed her fingers at the large white cloth-covered object sitting on a table at the far end of the room. Sun XiaoXiao grabbed the end of the sheet and pulled it up with a dramatic flair as An Jing announced, "The Drone."

The girls let out a simultaneous gasp upon seeing the sleek and impressive piece of technology, and the murmurs grew to a new height of excitement.

"The drone, Dragonfly-X, is a gift from the Wu Long Group's CTO. Professor Li's youngest sister."

An Jing looked at her subjects, who were still mesmerized by the drone, and clapped hard to get their attention back.

"Alright. Alright. It's cool, I know. But let's focus on the problem for now. Team 2 will be led by XiaoXiao. And only engineering students, or girls who are good with machines, are allowed on Team 2."

This reveal led to disgruntled murmurs among some sections of the student body.

"Because, if the drone gets damaged, all of us will be paying off that debt for the rest of our lives."

That unsubtle threat quickly strangled the burgeoning discontent.

"Coming back to the teams. Team 3 is a special one. You all know how much I like our university cafeteria food."

A groan of despair passed around the room.

"An Jing. Please don't make us eat cafeteria food," one of the girls begged dramatically.

"Only you like that food, Jingjing. Having to eat it every day is so terrible," another girl complained.

An Jing looked offended by this violent criticism of cafeteria food but decided to let it pass for now.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted... You all know how much I like our cafeteria food. But, since the patrols are a special occasion, there have been other arrangements."

A wave of relief passed over the assembled girls.

"Na-jie. Professor Li's third sister, and CFO of the Wu Long group, has promised us free food from one of their 5-star restaurants every night. And everyone..."

A communal cheer erupted from among the students.

"And everyone in the dorm can have it, not just the people on patrol."

The cheers only increased in intensity until An Jing had to quiet everyone down lest they wake the entire campus.

"And Team 3's job is collecting and distributing the food once it's here. And Chen Yi is in charge of Team 3."

The girls gave Chen Yi a loud clap and adoring looks, already hatching schemes to make her part with extra food.

"To sum up, Team 1 is patrols, Team 2 is drone, and Team 3 is food."

Just as An Jing was about to wrap up, Mei Lin whispered, "Jingjing, the hoodies."

"Ahh, the hoodies. Thanks for reminding me, Linlin."

An Jing walked up to a box that was placed in another corner of the room and took out a red hoodie. She put it on as she returned to the center.

"This, is a hoodie from..." An Jing paused for dramatic effect; "The top model," a wave of excitement passed through the crowd; "The goddess," the air was now electric with anticipation; "The CBO of the Wu Long group," it had now reached fever pitch; "Li Jing, herself." And the world erupted in a cacophony of cheers and screaming.

The commotion at the reveal of the drone and food was nothing compared to what happened now.

The frenzy swelled into an uncontrollable tsunami when XiaoXiao, after reading the label on the hoodie, gasped and said, "It's an authentic Leizu. It feels so soft and sturdy at the same time."

The girls would not quiet down until the hoodies were distributed.

"Jing-jie, can we keep this?" A small girl in the back asked hopefully, clutching her hoodie like a precious treasure.

"Yes, yes. It's all yours. Oh, and about the hoodie, Team 1 should wear it compulsorily while out on patrols so that we can all quickly identify each other. It's not compulsory for the other teams.

"I'll wear it anyway," Sun XiaoXiao said.

"Me too," another girl offered.

Before long everyone had agreed upon the dress code.

"All right, all right. Getting back to reality. Does anyone have any questions?"

The small girl clutching the hoodie slowly raised her hands and spoke up, "Ummm...jie, what's the ...ummm... name for operation?"

"What?"

"I think she is asking for the name of this operation," Mei Lin said helpfully.

The girl nodded.

"Hmmm...well, does anyone have any suggestions?" An Jing asked the assembly.

"How about Operation Underwear?" Chen Yi suggested immediately.

"That's disgusting, Lao-Yi," XiaoXiao said, cutting down the idea ruthlessly. "It sounds like we are the ones who are about to steal underwear."

"Anything else other than Operation Underwear?"

"How about Operation Brief Case?" someone in the crowd yelled out.

"Hmmm..." An Jing contemplated the idea for a second. "That's a good one. We will stick with it. Operation Brief Case is a go."

The girls all clapped happily.

"All right. Before we divide everyone into teams, there is something I need to say."

Everyone straightened up and paid attention to An Jing.

"I want everyone to know that this isn't a game. We are here for a very specific reason. To get our dignity back. If anyone has doubts about this, now is the time to leave."

No one moved.

"Good. Now, once we start the patrols, I don't want to hear any complaints. I don't want to see anyone harassing Mei Lin to change their patrol route. I don't want anyone treating the drone like a toy. And I definitely don't want to hear any arguments about food. Everyone will have a specific job, and they will do it perfectly and let others handle the rest."

An Jing scanned the crowd. All were intently listening to her every word.

"And most importantly, I don't want anyone to be a hero. We are here to solve a problem, not create more victims. If you see the thief when out on patrol, you quickly alert Team 2 using your earpiece. Who will then use the drone to track him. Never, and I repeat, never, ever, engage him. If he comes at you, just run away. I will deal with the perp myself. Is that understood?"

"Hao de, laoda," the girls affirmed unequivocally.