Operation Brief Case - Finale

Collision:

The peace was shattered by a scream. It was around eleven. The girls had just finished the second shift, and An Jing was getting ready for hers. None of the students used the laundry room at this hour. But Chen Yi, slightly sleepy after a particularly tasty dinner, had accidentally wandered into the laundry room while trying to find the bathroom.

When she turned on the laundry room lights, she found a man wearing black trousers, a black shirt, and a black mask squatting in front of one of the machines like a goblin, his hands and pockets full of feminine underwear. A moment of silence passed between the two as if time itself was stuck.

Then Chen Yi screamed.

The thief screamed louder.

Chen Yi, still yelling, ran away from the laundry room in terror. Seeing his opportunity, the thief bolted out as well.

Mei Lin, who had come out to investigate the noise, bumped into a scared and shaking Chen Yi.

"What happened, Lao-Yi?" Mei Lin asked, holding her friend steady.

"Linlin... he... he was there."

"Which way did he go?"

Chen Yi pointed in the direction the thief had escaped.

Mei Lin quickly spoke into her earpiece, "XiaoXiao, the thief is here. He went out the back door. Quick, get visuals, and contact Jingjing."

The reply came immediately, "Acknowledged, Linlin." XiaoXiao's voice buzzed from the other side.

Mei Lin then comforted Chen Yi and took her to get some hot chocolate.

XiaoXiao and her team had the drone make a beeline to the back of the dorm, where they found the thief running out of the building. An ordinary camera might have failed in that darkness, but there was no escaping the Dragonfly's infrared camera and motion detectors.

"Jingjing," XiaoXiao said, "Jingjing, come in."

"I am here. Just tying my shoes. What's up?"

"We have visual on the perp."

"Finally!"

"He is heading towards the Chemistry building. He is cutting across the lawns."

"I am on him," An Jing said, her voice unnaturally calm. "Keep me posted. And make sure all the girls are safely inside the dorm."

*      *      *

While the girls were engaged in a high-stakes chase, Li Wei and An Mei had just finished their shift at the dorm and were walking home hand in hand.

"And that is Betelgeuse," Li Wei was saying, pointing at the reddish star in the sky. "One day, it's going to die in a magnificent supernova explosion."

"Really?" An Mei said, her fearful tone almost convincing. She clutched Li Wei's arms even more tightly and asked, "Will we be safe, Weiwei?"

"Of course, darling," Li Wei reassured his wife while enjoying her playful little game. "It will be at least a hundred thousand years before that happens, and it's too far from us anyway."

He released An Mei's hand and wrapped his arms around her shoulder, pulling her in closer.

Li Wei continued, "And, even if it does go off sooner, I will be here to protect you."

An Mei looked up at him and chuckled. "My hero!" she whispered before giving him a kiss.

Li Wei grinned upon receiving what he knew was a totally unearned reward, but he was not going to argue about it.

"Weiwei," An Mei said, the slight worry in her voice now genuine. "Where are we? This isn't the usual road we take."

Li Wei's gaze moved from the heavens to the familiar scenery in front of him

"We are at the Chemistry building, look," he said, pointing at the large concrete structure. "If we just turn right here and take another left, we reach the main road. There is a bus stop there."

Suddenly, the couple's loving bubble was shattered by the patter of swift footsteps.

Li Wei turned around to look and saw a man clad in all black barreling towards them.

It did not take a genius to guess who this was.

An Mei gasped.

To Li Wei the world seemed to come to a standstill. He looked at the thief and then at his wife. "Protect An Mei." That was the only thought in his mind.

Li Wei was no fighter, but he knew physics. All he had to do was cancel out the momentum of the approaching body. And that meant...

Li Wei stood in the thief's path, bodily blocking his route.

The thief, unable to pivot at the last second, crashed into the professor, and the two men went down in an ungainly heap.

"Wei!!!" An Mei cried out in sheer terror.

The thief was the first to get himself together. He tried to get up and run away, but Li Wei had his leg in a vice-like grip.

"Let go of me!!!" the thief screamed.

But Li Wei would not let go. He had to protect An Mei.

An Mei, tears running down her cheeks, ran towards her husband and started wailing on the thief with her handbag.

The thief pushed her away easily, sending her sprawling.

Denied the chance to run away, the thief took the only option left. He lifted up his hand, which was now balled into a fist, ready to strike Li Wei.

Li Wei still did not let go, not even to protect himself. Because An Mei was still not safe.

An Mei saw the hand go up, and her heart lurched to her throat. She tried to scramble up to her feet so that she could take the blow and shield her husband from it.

Suddenly, a swift shadow passed her by.

Before the thief even realized what was happening, intense pain exploded from the side of his face, and he felt himself being thrown sideways by the same irresistible force that had almost pulverized his jaw.

He was no longer on top of the man who was gripping his leg. He was now on the asphalt. And he was crying from unbearable agony.

He looked up and saw a little girl standing over him, her eyes blazing with cold rage.

He tried to get up, but he was denied that chance by the roundhouse kick that left him an unconscious lump on the road.

While the action went on behind them, Li Wei and An Mei were sitting on the road hugging each other and crying while simultaneously trying to console their partner.

An Jing looked at her sister and brother-in-law and asked, her voice almost cracking with emotion, "Are you two okay? Are you hurt anywhere, Jie? Jie-fu?"

"No, Jingjing. We are alright," Li Wei answered, still not letting go of his wife.

"We are fine, Jingjing. Are you all right?" An Mei asked, still clinging to her husband.

"I am good. Don't worry about me," An Jing said, relieved. She took out the pink, fluffy handcuffs that had been sent to her by Li Wei's fourth sister. "But, you two might want to get off the road."

The Chat:

Once the police arrived and arrested the pervert—who was still wearing pink handcuffs—the girls had partied all night. And the next morning most of them were unwilling even to get off the bed, let alone go to classes.

The underwear thefts were finally over. The atmosphere of the dorm had become much more relaxed, and the girls were far less anxious.

The story of how the girls had taken down the underwear thief was becoming a campus legend, still gaining momentum and mutating. There were now various versions of the final fight floating around, with the most popular being An Jing and Li Wei tag-teaming the perp, and An Mei cheering them on with motivational quotes while throwing cutting insults at the pervert.

The evening after the capture, An Jing was alone in her room folding laundry, and her phone buzzed. It was a message from the CEO of the Wu Long Group.

Li Fen: Jingjing. My brother and sister-in-law were almost hurt.

An Jing: Da-jie. You know?

An Jing: Of course you do. Sorry, jie. It was my fault. I didn't expect the thief to run into them when they were going home. And Wei-ge made me promise not to tell you.

Li Fen: I am not blaming you. It was an unforeseen variable. Even my security team did not expect it.

An Jing: Security team? Huh! So that's how the police got there so quickly.

Li Fen: Now that the matter has been handled, Hua and my other sisters don't need to know all the details.

An Jing: Agreed. But what about Yue-jie? She probably has the drone feed.

Li Fen: I will handle her.

An Jing: 👍

Li Fen: My brother, was he upset after the incident?

An Jing: No. He just seemed happy that everything turned out alright.

Li Fen: Good.

An Jing: I have to say though, he was very, very brave. He really went all out to save my sister.

Li Fen: He was always a very good boy.

An Jing: Jie, and that thing we talked about?

Li Fen: I haven't forgotten. You did keep both Xiao-Wei and Xiao-Mei safe as we agreed, even considering that minor hiccup. Let me know when you are ready. I will have the booking confirmed for you.

An Jing: Thanks, Da-jie. You are the best.

Li Fen: Stay safe, girl.

An Jing: 👌

Epilogue:

It had now been a week since the arrest. The long cold nights were slowly giving way to sunnier days, and the evenings had grown much more pleasant. Chen Yi and Sun XiaoXiao were leaning against the railings of room 221's balcony while watching the campus; meanwhile, Mei Lin and An Jing were playing a game of GO inside.

"By the way, who was the thief?" Chen Yi asked.

"It was that guy from the office," XiaoXiao replied without turning to her friend.

"Which guy?"

"You know, the creep, the one with that weird hair that looked like this." XiaoXiao tried to show the supposedly weird haircut by styling her own hair.

"I don't get it." Chen Yi's mind refused to come up with a picture of the man.

"You know. The guy who was fired after he was caught taking pictures of girls."

"I don't remember him."

"Well, you should know these things. It's called being involved."

"What are you staring at anyway? You have been looking for some time now."

"Them," XiaoXiao pointed. "There they go again," she said dreamily, watching Li Wei and An Mei walking around campus. "They are just so cute together."

"How come they are still doing the walks even after the patrol is over?" Chen Yi asked, revealing her inexperience in love.

"Because it's romantic, idiot," XiaoXiao said, not taking her eyes off the couple. "I wish I had someone like Professor Li to walk hand in hand with."

"Well, you have me," Chen Yi said helpfully.

XiaoXiao shook her head and then smiled at her friend. "Yeah. We just have to make do with each other." She then went back to gazing at the professor and his wife. "I will miss this, though. They will probably stop doing it regularly after a week or two."

"I miss the five-star food," Chen Yi reminisced.

"That's all you think about," XiaoXiao retorted, but even she was growing nostalgic. "But, the food was really good. I wonder how long it will be before we taste something that good again."

"How about tomorrow?" An Jing said from inside the room.

"What do you mean? Jingjing? Can we really?" Chen Yi asked hopefully as she ran back indoors.

"Well, I asked Fen-jie to get us some free seats at Zao Shen's. Just a little gift for having done her a favor."

XiaoXiao gasped. "You mean Zao Shen's, the best restaurant in Tianjing City? Where it takes even the elite months and months to get a table?"

An Jing simply grinned.

Chen Yi gave An Jing a ferocious bear hug while saying, "Jingjing. I love you."

"We need proper clothes." XiaoXiao was already planning the trip. "We can't go to a fancy place like that with what we usually wear."

"We can go shopping tomorrow morning. It's Sunday anyway," Mei Lin spoke without taking her eyes off the game.

"That's perfect. We can make it a girl's night out."

"Can we go dancing?"

"Why not? Dancing after dinner would be great."

"Hey. How did I lose?"

"Maybe we can even get ice cream."

"I still had... Mei Lin... How did you win?"

"They serve ice cream at fancy restaurants."

"Really?"

"I am beating you next time."

"Maybe we can meet some boys."

*     *     *

Glossary:

Lao+Yi = It literally means old Yi. (Lao + Given name) is a term that can be used among friends, especially by a younger friend towards an older one.

GO = A strategy board game popular in many eastern countries. It was invented in China.