USHER IN YEAR OF THE OX WITH JOY
Chinese New Year, commonly referred to as the Spring Festival, is a time for family reunion and wish for prosperity. At international schools, their effort in building innovative cultural platforms for students knows no boundaries.
Three days to prepare for a classic stronghold heist. Preparation, preparation, preparation. Rose slammed another magazine into her handgun, strapped on her mask and took it off again.
She was very bored.
Wren and Sparrow had gone out to get a few boxes of donuts, but the nearest shop was 11 blocks away and Jackdaw had taken the truck. Falcon was practicing at the shooting range and that left Rose to do the reconnaissance.
She mused on the possibilities of robbing the bank while they were away, but Kingfisher would blow up at her, literally.
Her next training session would be an attempt to escape a triple-locked room filled with C4 and a lockpick, in 30 seconds.
She went over the plan again. Not exactly fool proof, but very good.
It was simple. Wren and Falcon will disguise themselves as security.
They’ll go in, access the archive room and find out how to shut down the sensors in the vault for around 60 seconds.
At that time, Wren will open deposit box 136, take the files while Falcon stands guard near the stairs. After 60 seconds the vault will close by itself and everybody will evacuate.
If they are unable to disable the vault sensors, they’ll tunnel through the lobby and into the vault with thermite while fighting off waves of SWAT and police, before escaping to Stronghold HQ in Sparrow’s getaway helicopter.
If the operation goes sideways, then Jackdaw and Rose will go in with their guns and take as many hostages as they can.
Rose will then hold the hostages while Jackdaw goes back to get Falcon and Wren’s armor, guns and ammo. Sparrow will start her helicopter and Rose will set off the thermite.
Rose ejected her full magazine and slammed in another before studying the gun.
A custom Desert Eagle 45 ACP handgun with a laser sight and suppressor.
The mag was extended with a small hook for easier ejection. Many people would say it was impractical — unless your job is robbing banks and busting criminals out of prisons.
Rose mused on that. Was her job really just robbing banks, killing people, and busting operatives out of prison? She shrugged and wondered if she was going insane.
But to be honest, all the top-tier operatives were very strange. In fact, the top-tier operatives who weren’t strange ended up going crazy or killing themselves.
Sparrow had a donut fetish, Wren was addicted to money, Falcon was a kleptomaniac, Kingfisher had a sick love of controlling people, Jackdaw had an obsession with watching fish swim and Rose loved extremely dangerous operations and explosions.
In short, a very strange team.
Such is the life of a Level 3 stronghold operative. Three days.
Usually, the weeklong Spring Festival holiday leaves Shanghai empty as millions of people travel abroad or reunite with their out-of-town families. This year, the city was surprisingly busy as many opted to stay put because of COVID-19 concerns — but that’s not to say the staycationers didn’t enjoy the festivities in Shanghai.
In downtown Jing’an, festive decorations were hung in the streets, shopping malls and tourist attractions.
Tables for nianyefan (Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner), the most important family banquet of the year, were fully booked very early so restaurants offered semi-prepared food packages for people to cook at home.
The venerable Meilongzhen Restaurant on Nanjing Road W. offered semi-prepared food packages for the first time.
The 11 packages included the restaurant’s recommended pork, beef and shrimp. Xinzhenjiang Restaurant, just 30 meters away from its rival, enjoyed twice the sales than it did last year thanks to semi-prepared and take-out food.
Stay-in-the-city residents flocked to parks to enjoy the early spring blossoms.
Magnolia trees in Zhabei Park have bloomed earlier than the seasonal norm.
Some kanhi-zakura cherry blossoms, a known early bloomer, flowered at Daning Park before a sea of tulip blossoms, while Jing’an Sculpture Park is filled with plum blossoms
Staycationing consumers spent 230 million yuan (US$35.63 million), a 150 percent year-on-year rise, in 23 major shopping sites in Jing’an over the weeklong holiday.
Daning Music Plaza saw a rise of 746 percent, Sincere Plaza, 631 percent and Imix Park of 378 percent.
Local subdistricts, labor unions and social organizations sent staycation migrant workers holiday gifts to thank them for their contributions.
Jing’ansi Subdistrict, Jing’anbased Elite Union and local companies sent 8,000 gift packages, such as food, scarves and coupons, to migrant workers, including deliverymen, street cleaners and construction workers.
Song, a driver from an online ride-hailing company, has been working in Shanghai for three years.
“My love for this open and inclusive city grows every day. Here, I can see bright prospects,” he said.
Jing’an Party Building Service Center organized an event for migrant workers, with a variety of traditional holiday activities on offer, such as couplets writing and paper cutting.
Local sanitation worker Jiang Yuqing said, “Though I failed to reunite with my family, I felt like I was at home here. I had fun and I really enjoyed it.”