After Shannel exited the office, Lily pulled the card out of the envelope. "Hah, this is hilarious." Lily felt tears rushing up to her eyes from the hideous card in her hand. The outside of the card was neon green with neon pink ribbons printed on the sides. In a medium sized neon yellow colored script print, initials were listed in zig zagging patterns.
"F.H & J.M.M." It said on the card.
She took a deep breath to hold in her laughter as she opened the card to see how great the contents looked on the inside. Regret almost filled her mind as soon as her eyes fell on the bright card - nearly blinding her sight. The background was neon orange with two pictures of Meng Meng on either side of the card.
Neon red squiggly lines were used to trace the photos as if it was a picture frame. The poses in the photos were the main joke. On the left side of the card, Meng Meng was wearing a pair of sunglasses with two hands touching the top of her head. Her lips were slightly parted, and hair was styled to sit on her torso. She wore a casual white top with jeans. Her hair covered her chest, which only made her chest look flattened.
Perhaps these positions made her think she looked sexy, but it was poorly taken. The picture of Meng Meng on the right side of the card was on the next level of ridicule. Her face wasn't even shown in it. It was a picture of her back. The only good thing that stood out was the overly stretched legs of hers that made her look like a giraffe's neck. She was taking a picture of some plant with her phone.
Captured in that moment was a distorted space with a tilted road. Her nonexistent butt cheeks were looking like a chopping board that had a dent in it. The jeans she wore in that picture were obviously stretched out in the picture, and her back was covered by the white top she was wearing.
"Wow! Did she think these were sexy? Even a granny walking along the road casually looks better than this. Her taste is indeed interesting. How did she end up choosing these two pictures? These cards are wasted!" Lily covered half her face in disgrace from remembering that they shared the same surname.
She took a few steps forward and bent down to retrieve two more cards. A part of her extremely hoped the cards would differ from the one she most recently received. Picking up a neon yellow and neon blue card in her hand, she went back to the couch and started comparing them.
Unfortunately, the changes she wanted to see didn't happen. Other than the choice of colors — equally as bad as the first one — that changed, nothing else was touched. Lily scratched her forehead with a headache when she saw the bright colors in her eyes.
"Did she eat skittles or something? Did she want to taste the rainbow? Why did she want her invitation cards to look like puked rainbows? This one is neon pink on the outside and neon yellow on the inside. The letters are freaking white! This other one is neon blue on the outside and a lime color on the inside. The letters are what? Light orange? Who the heck could read this? Is she blind?" Lily squinted and tried her best to read what was printed on the card.
At the end, she gave up and took a picture of each side of the invitation card that she most recently received. Carefully observing the picture on her phone, she zoomed in at every corner to make sure there weren't any puzzles in this card. When she reached the back of the card, she spotted a very small print on the bottom left.
The words were the same color as the background color. Scoffing at the ridiculous color decisions, she zoomed in and read it. "Marionette Hotel. What? That's it? There is no time nor date. How the heck would guests know when to attend this party? I hope they wore sunglasses while reading this, though. I'm nearly blinded by the colors already."
In the next minutes, Lily gave Shannel a call and kindly asked her to bring the bags of invitations to the paper recycling corporations nearby. If she remembered correctly, there were many grannies and grandpas always looking around the area for paper. She instructed a few staffs to bring the papers there with Shannel and distribute the money they take from the recycling company to the elders.
As soon as the staff took the cards out of her office, Meng Meng's caller ID popped up on her screen. Lily picked up the call after three rings and the first thing she heard from Meng Meng's mouth was a bucket of rudeness.
Phone conversation:
Meng Meng: "Oh my god! You're alive!!"
Lily: "Sorry to disappoint you, but I just came back from a very relaxing vacation."
Meng Meng: "Wow, thanks for the hit ups. Thought we were closer than that and you don't even bother asking."
Lily: "Then our definition of close must have been antonyms. Anyway, what do you need?"
Meng Meng: "Well, while you were off on a boring ass trip with your poor soul who has no friends, I got myself engaged. I've been sending you invitations, but you didn't respond. Finally, you responded. Well? Did you see my invitation?"
Lily: "Ah, well the newest one yes."
Meng Meng: "I sent probably over 500 of them in different colors. You only saw one?"
Lily replied, "well you did say I can shred the useless ones in the text messages. So, that is what I did. I recycled them. Why? Were they important?"
Meng Meng: "How wasteful! Those were high-quality paper that I printed! I even chose the pictures and designs on it."
Lily: "Well, your efforts are surely evident. I mean, those two pictures show off everything you want to boast about that were nonexistent. Oh, what about your fiancé? He wasn't even in the pictures. If you didn't mention engagement, I would've thought it was some elementary art project where they cut out shapes from weird photos and glued it together."
Meng Meng: "My fiancé is someone you've met already. Remember? He is the heir of the Fu family? You met him at the last party."
Lily: "Hah.."
Meng Meng: "What are you laughing about?"
Lily: "Nothing. I just saw an ad on my phone saying fried pig brain on top but the pig didn't even have a brain. Anyway, you sure you're going to marry him? If so, when is the wedding? This invitation card says nothing about the time and date."
Of course, she had already warned Meng Meng once to be careful, yet she still insists that Hawk was the Fu family's heir. Since she needed to suffer a lesson to clear up her mind, then so be it.
Meng Meng: "It'll be a little less than two months. And let me tell you how fancy the venue will be. We just haven't decided on the place yet because his family wanted to be as low key as possible. They are too humble. I'll send another invitation card when the time comes. Anyway, we are having a family dinner this Saturday and grandpa will be there as well. I'll see you then."
Lily: "Kay."