Chapter 223: Chapter 226

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.

Such a chess-playing method caught the old man off guard, and it was now his turn to have his chess pieces under threat.

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.

Having changed sides long ago, the group of old men now stood behind Sophia along with Stanley as they chanted, “Check his king! Check his king!”

Now it was the grey-haired old man’s turn to be under tremendous stress; any bad move would make him lose the entire game. Then, with another chess move, Sophia said with a victorious smile, “Thank you for playing with me, old man. Checkmate!”

The old man tossed the chess piece in 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 from there once again!”

However, Sophia wasn’t offended; she retracted her previous moves and resumed the game. This time, the old man managed to make another five moves before Sophia succeeded in capturing all his chess pieces once again.

Unwilling to concede defeat, the old man said, “Let’s start again!”

They retracted their moves and resumed the game once again. This time, Sophia dealt the old man another crushing defeat before the latter could even make five moves.

At last, the old man tossed his chess piece away and said, “I’m not playing anymore!”

With that, he turned around and left in a huff.

Now it was Stanley’s turn to be smug. He yelled at the old man from a distance away, “You lost the game, old man! Did you hear me? You lost the game!”

The old man merely responded with an angry snort.

Stanley grabbed Sophia’s hand and squeezed it as hard as he could. He then said, “Sophia, you’re basically my savior! This old man has been scourging me for over ten years; he kept forcing me to play chess with him despite knowing that I’m terrible at it! You did a great job just now! If he ever asks me to play chess with him in the future, I’ll let you play in my place!”

Sophia could only respond with a helpless expression.

The group 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 doing square dancing and exercises.

Sensible as he was, Sean took his leave first, leaving Stanley, Sophia, and Nathan to themselves.

Sophia first had Nathan apologize to Stanley and his pet dog. Walking up to Stanley, Nathan bowed his head and said, “I’m sorry, Stan. I won’t fiddle around with your things anymore.”

Then, he apologized to Stanley’s pet dog. “I’m sorry—I won’t hit you anymore.”

The dog merely responded with a woof.

Stanley turned up his nose, saying, “Hmph, I’ll 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 Joel’s place and let you undergo training with them!”

After Nathan had apologized, Stanley took a walk in the military compound with Sophia’s aid, whereas Nathan wheeled the stroller and the pet dog inside.

Sophia was silent the whole time, whereas Stanley babbled on and on like a chatterbox. He said, “Sophia, it never occurred to me that you’re so good at chess. It just so happens that our university will be having a chess tournament. Are you going to join it? Also, I’ll be competing in the Aseanos finals of the Esports World Championship. Please make sure to watch me play!”

After listening to his bragging for a long time, Sophia and Nathan left together.

No sooner had she left, the grey-bearded old man from just now sprang up out of nowhere. Leading a group of old 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 relationship with her? How far has the relationship between you two progressed? Have you two held hands and kissed each other? When will you two register for marriage? When will I have a great-great-grandson?”

His bombardment of questions made Stanley’s head swim. Feeling a little shy, Stanley scratched his head as he said, “Why are you so anxious, Great-Grandpa? There’s nothing between us yet.”

The old man who had just been badly defeated by Sophia was none other than Mark Fletcher, the Old Master of the Fletcher Family. Not only was he Michael’s grandfather and Stanley’s great-grandfather, he was also well-known in Cethos as the God of War and one of the country’s founding fathers!

Old Master Fletcher had retired many years ago. As he was pushing 100, he was now concerned about the marriages of Michael, his youngest grandson, and Stanley, his eldest great-grandson.

Michael was over 30 years old already, yet he showed no signs of finding a bride. Old Master Fletcher’s face nearly contorted with rage when rumors had it that he had registered for marriage with that Winston brat.

Because of that, he began worrying about Stanley’s marriage when Stanley was still attending university.

He said, “You aren’t young anymore—you’re 20 already, which is almost the same age as Mike! Where is the girl from? What kind of background does she come from? Just court her with confidence as long as she comes from a decent background. You don’t have to care about the difference between your families’ statuses; I’ll talk to your parents about it.”

Stanley was elated. He said, “Really? You’re so kind to me, Great-Grandpa!”

He then continued, “She is Sophia Edwards, an orphan and a student of Bayside University who is now working as Nate’s babysitter at Uncle Michael’s home. She’s attending university with Nate every day.

Great-Grandpa, it seems that Uncle Michael doesn’t want Sophia and I to be together, so please talk to him, okay?”

Old Master Fletcher beat his chest and promised, “Don’t worry—just leave this matter to me.”

Then, he patted Stanley on the shoulder and added earnestly, “Stan, my greatest wish in this life is for the Fletcher Family to have five generations living under the same roof. I’ll be entrusting you with this arduous task.”

Stanley nodded with determination as he said, “I promise to complete this task!”

He thought to himself, It’s great! Now that Great-Grandpa is going to take action, nothing is going to be a problem!

Michael didn’t speak much with other members of his family, but Old Master Fletcher, his grandfather, was an exception. Out of everyone else in the family, Michael listened only to him.

Having gotten a guarantee from Old Master Fletcher, Stanley went home happily and started preparing the gift he wanted to give Sophia to declare his love for her.