A Bride's Greatest Nightmare

If she invited me to her wedding celebration, that is.

For the past two years, I attended three weddings of my cousins, and was part of the jie-mei tuan for the first two. Another of my cousins warned me not to take part in so many for it was believed that a girl who took part in more than three wedding jie-mei tuans, would stay a spinster for the rest of her life.

Well, I can't be bothered about her old wives' tale. I have so many jie-meis, I can't possibly not take part in all their wedding celebrations in the future, even if I were married before them. There's no harm in helping my cousins once or twice, since I must be part of the jie-mei tuans for all seven of my jie-meis and Baby (and maybe other close friends too, like Qing, Jo and Agnes). I'm destined to be single either way, why not accept some fat hongbaos while I can.

Ever since I acquired the skill and intuition to look nice, I made effort to shine in weddings. That was three weddings ago. I would prepare two outfits for the morning tea ceremony and the dinner in the evening. I don't like the Singapore custom of treating a wedding dinner like CNY visits. I prefer it to be much more formal than that. (For my wedding dinner, if I ever got to hold one, the dress code will be cocktail formal.) To look presentable, I even sourced dresses from my friends. And thought of setting my hair at the hair salon, although I never did.

Once I made the effort, there was no chance the bride would look better than me. But hey, don't you know it feels so good to have someone tell you, "你好靓。" I must declare that I did not intend to look better. At least not wholeheartedly. I say it was the brides' fault for not looking prettier than me.

Jingli said I would get retribution for harbouring such an evil intention. Actually, it has been my lifelong ambition to outshine all my cousins. I don't know why. Academic-wise, which hasn't taken much effort, too.

Well, the target is my cousins, not you ok. So don't worry, Hui, that I will look nicer than you. I'm sure your radiance alone on your wedding day will outshine me ten feet away.