My Dreamy Old Husband

Stanley was delighted, but the face of the old man across from him turned grave—so did the faces of the group of old men surrounding them.

Everyone at the scene fell silent at once. After pondering for several minutes, the grey-haired old man moved one of his chess pieces to make a move. Soon after that, a hand appeared behind Stanley and moved Stanley’s bishop two squares diagonally.

Only then did the old man notice the young lady standing behind Stanley. She seemed pretty young, but she looked wise and prescient.

She played chess using a completely different approach from Stanley’s. While Stanley played by constantly retreating, she kept closing in on her opponent at all costs, knowing very well that a good offense was the best defense.

Stanley quickly moved over to make room for Sophia to sit down. He then said warmly, “Come, Sophia. You can play it yourself.”

Sophia had been so wrapped up in the game; she didn’t realize that she had made a chess move on Stanley’s behalf without asking for Stanley and the old man’s permission. She felt a little embarrassed, but seeing that the old man didn’t object to Stanley’s words, she sat down and played against the old man with rapt attention.

Chess was one of her specialties as well; back when she was in high school, she had enjoyed free tuition, free board and lodging, and not to mention monthly allowances and annual scholarships. The only thing that enabled her to attend the best high school in Riverdale despite her poverty was her academic excellence.

Her high school was packed with outstanding talents, so she had to perform better than anyone else in order to keep staying at school and study for free. Besides earning top scores on every subject and staying among the top ten of the class in every exam, she also forced herself to develop extracurricular skills.

Since her high school’s women’s basketball team kept losing every year, she forced herself to learn basketball so that her school team wouldn’t suffer from an embarrassing defeat. Also, since her high school’s chess team kept losing to other high school teams every year, she made an effort to learn chess so that she could win prizes for the school annually. That way, she could be awarded with scholarships as well.

Feeling threatened was reason enough for her to learn everything with great speed!

Sophia and the old man were silent as they engaged in an intense fight by capturing each other’s chess pieces repeatedly.

It had started to get uncomfortably hot in the late spring, and Sophia’s snow-white forehead was covered with a thin sheen of sweat. On the contrary, the old man across from her was drenched in sweat.

Half an hour later, the sky had grown visibly dark, and Sophia gained a steady upper hand on the chessboard, pushing her opponent to the verge of defeat.

changed sides long ago, the group of old men now stood behind Sophia along

turn to be under tremendous stress; any bad move would make him lose the entire game. Then, with another chess

his hand away in frustration. He argued, “No, the move I played just now isn’t valid! I was too careless just now. Let’s start

retracted her previous moves and resumed the game. This time, the old man managed to make

concede defeat, the old man said, “Let’s start

once again. This time, Sophia dealt the old man another crushing

old man tossed his chess piece away

that, he turned around and left in

Stanley’s turn to be smug. He yelled at the old man from a distance away, “You lost the

responded

scourging me for over ten years; he kept forcing me to play chess with him despite knowing

respond with

of old men had gone their separate ways to enjoy their pleasant nightlife. The military compound didn’t seem any different from other places since there were also a group of old men and women

Sean took his leave first, leaving Stanley,

Nathan bowed his head and said, “I’m sorry, Stan. I won’t

dog. “I’m sorry—I won’t hit

merely responded

forgive you this time since you seem so sincere, but you must not make the same mistake more than three times. If you do it again, I’ll send you to Uncle

Stanley took a walk in the military compound with Sophia’s aid, whereas Nathan wheeled the stroller and the

happens that our university will be having a chess tournament. Are you going to join

listening to his bragging for a long time, Sophia and Nathan

men to surround Stanley instantly, he began by asking in an interrogative tone, “Who is the girl that came with Nate just now? What is your