Ch. 1001..1010

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1001

Vincent sneered. “Judging by the amount of tax you’ve evaded, the court will probably sentence you to a few years in jail. You'd be just as ashamed to meet the ancestors of the Mitchell Family since you'd be the first of the Mitchells to have ever gotten a jail sentence because of tax evasion!” He furiously ended her call. Other members of the Mitchell Family called him after that, but he didn’t pick any of the calls up. Vincent wasn’t exactly a righteous or virtuous man, but he valued his pride. He never liked watching Sandra’s shameless acts of evading her taxes, and he knew that she wouldn’t be the only one to bear the responsibility of the issue if she were to get caught—the entire Mitchell Family would be dragged through the mud.

Wealthy families like theirs were indeed famous and powerful, but that also made them the focus of many higher-ups and authoritative figures. If they were to offend any of those higher-ups, those people could easily find some excuse to destroy the whole Mitchell Family. However, even after years and years of Sandra’s illegal tax evasion acts, Alex had never once lectured her about it. Instead, he tolerated it and told her to be careful about it. She was playing with fire, and her acts would clearly shove the Mitchell Family into the deep end someday. This time, Vincent finally decided to leave Alex and the rest of the family. He gathered all the details of Sandra’s illegal tax evasion acts, and he initially thought of handing them over for Cooper to deal with it, but Cooper ordered him to do it himself. Vincent personally brought all of the files to the tax department even before the news of the leaked files were released. The tax department therefore began their secret investigation even before the public commotion. Sandra’s not going to get away this time!

Meanwhile, Sophia was the one who had gathered all of the pornographic pictures from some unknown source. The pictures were extremely old, and Faye even appeared in some of them. Sophia probably found them by accident when she was doing her research on Faye’s scandalous acts. Vincent felt a sharp twinge in his heart when he thought of Faye, but there was nothing he could do about it. In fact, he was lucky he hadn’t actually gotten married to her back then. He would’ve been much worse off if that had happened. Now, Sandra was the one that was suffering instead.

…

Both the public security and tax departments worked together to launch an investigation on Sandra and Glory Entertainment. They were well prepared, and it was easy for them to dig for any further information. Just the double contracts and the sum of money involved in it was enough for them to throw Sandra into jail, and all those documents were already on the Internet. Sandra, who had never felt so helpless, immediately approached the members of her think tank to begin brainstorming.

Firstly, they would have to deny the fact that the compressed zip file had been released from Nicholas’ phone. They would have to explain that it was a misunderstanding, that the after-sales center for Dragon Eye had found no issues with the phone’s system after checking—basically, that all the details were forged. This way, they would be able to avoid any legal accusations, and they would also satisfy Dragon Eye’s intentions. After all, what Sophia wanted was probably for them to admit that there wasn’t actually anything wrong with the Dragon Eye phones.

Then, they would have to destroy all of the data that had been leaked. They would have to approach all their connections; they would have to offer huge sums to get people working; they would have to use the influential power of the Mitchells to reduce the public’s interest on this topic. If they had no other choice, they might have to get a few scapegoats to take the blame. Ultimately, they had to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

To Sandra’s surprise, Lucy was the first to phone her to check if she had found any solutions. Although the scandal had mostly to do with Sandra’s own matters, Lucy understood that Sophia made this move mainly because of the competition between Serpent and Dragon Eye. Lucy therefore felt the need to check on Sandra since Sandra was one of the pawns on her chessboard.

Furthermore, Nicholas was still the spokesperson of Serpent. All the advertisements had been released, and the public had shown great response to it. But now that he was involved in such a huge scandal with pornographic images, tax evasion, and other illegal acts, it would definitely affect the image of Serpent. Since Lucy asked Sandra about her upcoming plans, Sandra gave her an honest reply. She prayed that Lucy would be able to help her out.

Lucy’s response came as a surprise. “Well, now that all of the confidential information that was supposedly in Nicholas’ phone had been leaked to the public, everyone would definitely believe that Dragon Eye’s phones are problematic. This news indirectly proves that there’s something wrong with Dragon Eye’s system. If this is truly the tactic that Sophia employed, then she might as well be digging her own grave and jumping right into it!” Lucy uttered with a chuckle. Cooper’s daughter simply isn’t as smart as he is, huh! She didn’t even get 1% of Cooper’s brains and brawns. How could she come up with such an idiotic solution?! Now that they’ve made such a huge issue out of this, they’re practically giving a public announcement on how problematic their phone’s system is! Their phones have caused their client’s confidential details to be leaked to the public! For the past 30 years, Dragon Eye has been performing well in the international market precisely because of their quality and security. They claimed to be the most secure phone that couldn’t be hacked even with the advanced technology we have. Now that they did something so disadvantageous to their own brand, I’m sure Alice is mentally strangling Sophia to her death! Lucy couldn’t wait to see the look on Alice’s face! This is what happens when she fails to recognize who the better option is! I can’t wait for Alice to come begging me to clean up her mess!

“So… what should we do now?” Sandra asked timidly.

“Since the issue is so big now, I doubt the public will believe you if you say that there had never been anything wrong with Nicholas’ phone,” Lucy quickly said. “You should just remain silent about the leaked documents for now. We now have solid proof that Dragon Eye leaked their customer’s information, and I’ll help you out with the rest. Don’t worry—I’ll never let you get thrown into jail! Once all of this is over, you’ll be able to stand up for yourself and sue Dragon Eye.”

Sandra thought she had heard the other woman wrongly. Lucy actually wants me to admit that those files were leaked from Nicholas’ phone? She might as well ask me to kill myself! My company is the one that is being surrounded by people from the public security and tax departments; I’m the one that is being investigated here, so of course it’d be easy for Lucy to say this!

But Lucy continued with a determined tone that suggested that she refused to be disobeyed. “We’ll do this for now. I’ll handle all the matters regarding your company. Also, all the Serpent advertisements that have Nicholas in them have just been taken down. My lawyer will issue a letter for termination of contract soon, and I’ve already made a public announcement about it, so I’ll need your cooperation.” With that, Lucy slammed the phone down and ended the call.

Sandra remained dumbstruck for a long while after the other end of the call fell silent. Her handphone automatically showed her the trending news. Apparently, Serpent had made the announcement of their termination of Nicholas’ contract almost immediately after the scandal went public. Many netizens praised them for their swift actions. Nicholas’ fans, on the other hand, quickly turned into his haters.

Sandra thought to herself, Lucy is exactly the sort of ungrateful person that would burn the bridge after she got across the river! All she cares about is her own survival. How could she possibly care about me?! My survival, Glory Entertainment’s survival, the whole Mitchell Family’s survival… Why would Lucy care about that at all?! She had secretly allowed all of these nasty acts to go on all along, and she’d never brought it up when she was benefiting from it. Is she trying to avoid all responsibilities now that we’re facing a problem?! That’s not going to happen! That selfish old virgin deserves to be single forever. Linus isn’t interested in her, and neither is Michael, so who does she really think she is? She’s just lucky she was born into the Edwards Family. She wouldn’t be worth anything otherwise! She’d be worth less than a single strand of hair in my nose! Sandra gritted her teeth as tears of anger began to burn at the corner of her eyes.

Her assistant, who had been standing beside her, overheard the entire conversation, so she asked gingerly, “President Mitchell, should we still proceed with the plan?”

“No. I have a new plan!” Sandra smirked. Since Lucy doesn’t care about me and wants to watch me die, what else do I have to lose here? Now, it’s my turn to sit back and watch them fight one another!

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1003

Back when Celine and Justin went missing during the operation, the Mitchell Family wanted to take Nathan back and give him the surname Mitchell. Michael had taken a great deal of effort to forcibly snatch him back from the Mitchells. Now that Celine was pregnant with her second child, Cooper was dead set on the child bearing the surname Mitchell.

Cooper himself didn’t dare to go back to visit the Mitchell Family’s ancestral grave on New Year’s Day and other festivals. He said he didn’t give a damn about doing so, but in reality, he didn’t dare to visit his family’s ancestral grave because he was too ashamed to face his ancestors! That was because he had given up the surname of Mitchell and registered himself as a member of the Michel Family’s household.

Ordinary Cethosians were extremely obsessed with their family names, not to mention the distinguished families with a legacy of a few centuries.

Beyoncé, Cooper’s mother, abandoned her surname and family after falling in love with Woody back then. Leaving everything behind, she came to Cethos penniless and gave birth to Cooper. However, no one knew she was a member of the Michel Family and the daughter of the Michel Family’s head until her death. It wasn’t until more than 20 years later that the head of the Michel Family missed his daughter while on his deathbed and sent somebody to find out about her. Now, Alice had fallen in love with Daniel, yet she chose to run away and cast aside her love for him for the sake of her career.

Beyoncé chose to give up everything for love, whereas Alice chose to secure her career. She kept everything she had except for love, and this was the choice made by most of the women in the Michel Family. What about Sophia? She chose a path that had never been taken by anyone before. She chose to fight to the end together with Michael! However, nobody knew where this path would lead to…

As Daniel cried hopelessly, Harry comforted him, saying, “Alright, that’s enough. You’re already in your thirties; don’t you feel embarrassed to cry like this? Alright, stop crying. The sky is getting dark; it’s time to go home and have dinner.”

In the end, Daniel forced himself to stop crying. He then lit a cigarette and smoked it slowly. Michael, Harry, and Justin smoked together with him, and the four men smoked cigarettes while sitting on the lawn at the private airfield.

Harry said with a sigh, “Now that I think of it, Justin, you’re the lucky one, for you’ve overcome the odds.”

Daniel couldn’t be together with the woman he loved right now, whereas Michael had an uncertain future ahead of him, leaving Justin the only person who had finally overcome all sorts of hardships. He got back together with Celine and was expecting his second child, making him a winner in life aside from the fact that Celine was a little mentally retarded right now. His eldest son was quite promising, and he would soon be a father again. He had had a rough life, for everyone had witnessed his miserable past.

Justin blew a ring of smoke before chuckling foolishly and sweetly. Now that he had gotten back together with Celine, everything in the past seemed like a nightmare to him. Luckily, it was dawn, and he had woken up from the nightmare. Everything was fine, except that he broke into a sweat out of fright. The world was once again filled with sunlight when he drew the curtains. He said, “I think that you’re luckier than I. You’re expecting your second child now.”

Harry’s relationship with Sarah didn’t seem to have many difficulties. They had never been apart from each other as Justin and Celine were, nor was their love story as heart-wrenching as that of Michael and Sophia’s. Also, unlike Daniel and Alice, Harry and Sarah could be together with the person they loved, so what had happened to Harry was enviable.

Harry blew a ring of smoke sadly and watched as it slowly disappeared. Then, he said, “Just a while ago, Sarah’s dad tried to have her kidnapped on her way home from work, but I got wind of it in advance and stopped him. This was already the fifth time he had tried to lay a hand on Sarah and Sour Face. That father of hers had totally lost his mind; he harmed them again immediately after I let him off. So, in a fit of uncontrollable rage, I had him thrown into the high seas to feed him to the sharks. When I went back on it and had him picked up later, a leg was all that was left of him. Sarah doesn’t know this yet.”

Everyone fell silent at his words. What a man he is! He’s so ruthless as to kill his father-in-law! Harry now had his heart in his mouth for fear that Sarah would find out about this.

Justin said, “It’s alright. At the very least, your father-in-law couldn’t make mincemeat out of you anymore. Look at how miserable Mikey is. He’s afraid of being made into minced meat every day.”

Michael, who hadn’t a hope of remarriage, and Daniel, who didn’t have a hope in hell of getting a wife for himself, were silent the whole time.

In the end, the four men spent half of the night smoking, using Michael’s cell phone as their ashtray by stubbing out their cigarettes on its screen.

“Hey! This cell phone is pretty nice; it’s usable even in such a state! Stay still; let me take a photo and post it on Twitter!”

…

Sophia was also aware of Alice’s departure, but she was too busy to see Alice off. The presale for Dragon Eye cell phones was around the corner, so she had tons of matters to attend to.

While she was busy, her assistant suddenly said happily to her, “Miss Edwards, someone anonymously sent the evidence of Lucy instigating Nicholas Yates to throw mud at us to your official mailbox. I have sent the evidence to your laptop separately.”

Sophia immediately checked the folder her assistant sent over. The folder contained quite a few gigabytes of files, including the phone recording of how Lucy’s assistant instructed Nicholas to purposely drop and break his cell phone to smear Dragon Eye. There were also some screenshots of some text messages, including conversations and voice conversations detailing how they had orchestrated the whole incident.

The assistant said happily, “With these pieces of evidence, we can prove that there’s no problem with the cell phones’ quality, and the ratings will rise very soon!”

Sophia didn’t even finish looking at the files before she deleted them right away; she dragged them into the recycle bin and even emptied it. She said, “There’s no need to care about these pieces of evidence, for they’re all fake. We’ll be playing right into the enemy’s hands if we really release these pieces of evidence.”

The assistant was baffled. “I have had these pieces of evidence verified, and they’re all genuine! We’ll be able to save Dragon Eye’s reputation as soon as possible by releasing them right now!”

The release of Nicholas’ videos lent weight to his accusation that Dragon Eye cell phones had quality issues. As a result, questions and comments of disappointment poured in, and Dragon Eye’s anticipation scores in many online forums’ surveys plummeted.

The release of these files would save Dragon Eye’s reputation, proving that Dragon Eye’s operating system hadn’t been breached into and that everything was a malicious plot by their opponents!

Burying herself in work, Sophia said, “We can’t release them even if they’re genuine. Don’t worry, for someone is more anxious than us.”

The assistant didn’t understand what Sophia meant; however, since Sophia had spoken, she naturally didn’t dare to decide things for herself. Therefore, she deleted the files along with the email, pretending as if this had never happened.

Meanwhile, back in the Mitchell Group’s office, Sandra kept waiting, but no news came. The anticipation for the low-end version of Dragon Eye cell phones was diminishing online, and Sophia should have received the files she had sent her. Why was there still nothing going on on Sophia’s side? She would be able to save her cell phones’ reputation as long as she released the evidence to prove that this incident was under Lucy’s instigation!

Nicholas could also play up his pitiable persona by claiming that he had been threatened and that he was forced into doing everything against his will. Everything he had claimed online was false—his cell phone wasn’t hacked, nor had his personal data been stolen!

Sandra would then go under the radar for a while. Once this incident went out of the limelight and sank into oblivion, the matter would be played down and trivialized into nothing, and Lucy wouldn’t be able to place the blame on her. With that, she would be saved, and so would Glory Entertainment and Nicholas, the money-spinner! By then, she would sit idly by and watch the dogfight between Sophia and Lucy!

Sandra waited for quite a few days, but nothing happened on Sophia’s side. She had enough trump cards in her hand, but she didn’t use any of them. The day of Dragon Eye’s global sale was drawing near, and its presale in Cethos would start soon, yet the quality issues hadn’t been solved!

Sandra was more anxious than Sophia. She kept waiting for Sophia to make a move and come to a face-off with Lucy so that she could seize this opportunity to find a way to survive and save her own skin.

Sophia didn’t make any moves, but a lot was going on with the Taxation Bureau and the police. In a fit of desperation, Sandra eventually chose to clutch at straws by having someone spread the pieces of evidence anonymously. Besides trying hard to make it look like the evidence was released by Sophia’s team on purpose, she shifted all the responsibility to Lucy! Now, she shall wait for Lucy and Sophia to face off!

 

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1002

After hanging up on Sandra, Lucy kept waiting for Alice to give in to her. However, that didn’t happen despite several days of waiting, so she lost her patience and called Alice instead.

“Miss Alice, you’ll really lose the opportunity if you still don’t replace the agent for Dragon Eye!”

Alice was still in the Edwards Residence, and her personal assistant was packing her baggage. Unexpectedly, she received the swaggering phone call from Lucy.

She sounded indifferent over the phone. “Miss Edwards, I’m in a bad mood right now, so I don’t want to discuss work-related matters with you.”

With that, she hung up.

Lucy thought Alice was worried about the hacking of Dragon Eye’s operating system, so after the phone call ended, she waited with a gloating expression for the latter to give in to her.

However, she didn’t know that Dragon Eye wasn’t the cause of Alice’s agitation at all.

Now that she had had everything handed over and arranged, she was ready to leave Cethos.

Casper reluctantly carried his little backpack on his back while running out to pat the alpaca, the cat, and the dog. After saying goodbye to Carmen and Ashton, he sat on the porch, as if waiting for someone.

However, it had been quite a few days since the last time that person showed up.

Casper had been looking forward to calling the person ‘Daddy’, but he never came again.

Carmen comforted him like an adult, saying, “Don’t wait anymore. Mr. Psychic has gone back to his hometown. He’ll be back when you spend your holiday here next time.”

In the end, Casper didn’t get to see Daniel. After leaving the Edwards Residence, he and Alice took a car to the airport to leave the country on a private plane.

In the car, Alice worked using her laptop, whereas Casper pouted his lips without saying a word while playing with the sandalwood bracelet he had brought with him.

Once arriving at the airport, Alice got out of the car. Casper, led by Alice’s assistant, slowly walked toward the airport in dejection.

Alice looked unusually frosty on this day, for she didn’t say a word and was expressionless the whole time. She indifferently and resolutely walked up the boarding stairs to board the plane. Unexpectedly, she had barely made a few steps when a loud screeching sound of car tires was heard approaching from behind.

“Alice!”

Alice trembled, for she heard Daniel’s voice.

He came!

Daniel came in a hurry. His usually neatly combed hair was utterly messy on this day, and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked haggard, with dark circles bulged under his eyes.

“Daddy!” Casper happily ran up to him. This was the first time Casper called him ‘Daddy’. Daniel quickly walked up to Casper and hugged him, holding the latter tightly in his arms.

This is my son! My son!

The father and son reconnected at last! Tears spilled out of Daniel’s eyes as he held Casper in his arms.

He then looked at Alice, who didn’t look back the whole time. She looked cold and resolute from behind, but her long, thin, and uncontrollably trembling fingers betrayed the surging emotions within her at this moment.

Daniel let go of Casper and stood up before looking up at Alice, who was about to board the plane. “Alice, if I could turn the clock back, I would never regret going to the River Seine that day, nor would I have chosen to run away from you. I was wrong; I was totally wrong. Can you forgive me, Alice?”

Daniel could never put that particular night out of his mind; he couldn’t forget this beautiful lady from the West for the rest of his life. But he couldn’t be together with her. He was a vagabond who wandered all over the world like a seaman, unable to live a settled life. Therefore, he chose to run away from her until now.

However, he acknowledged his heart’s desire on this day, for he knew he couldn’t run away from his feelings for Alice. Even if he buried his memory of the encounter in the depths of his mind, this memory would be conjured up one day. He couldn’t control the feelings that he had suppressed for so many years once they were released.

Alice still didn’t look back, but her emotionless words were heard in the wind. “Daniel, how is there forgiveness to speak of when there’s no resentment between us?”

With that, she walked up to the door to the airplane’s passenger cabin. She placed her hand on the door frame and was about to go inside, only to hear Daniel calling out affectionately and desperately from behind, “Alice…”

No words followed after that, though.

It was as if Daniel wanted to say something and could say it with just a little effort. Still, he didn’t have the courage to say it.

Tears streamed uncontrollably out of his reddened eyes as he looked up in her direction.

Alice paused upon hearing his voice. However, as she had expected, she didn’t hear what she wanted to hear after waiting for over ten seconds. Hence, she entered the passenger cabin without a word and disappeared from sight.

Daniel couldn’t tell Alice’s despair and agony.

She was waiting for a simple sentence from him. Regrettably, she wouldn’t get to hear that from him.

How she wished Daniel could leave everything behind and go with her! However, she knew that Daniel couldn’t do so, nor could she give up everything she had worked so hard for and stay in Cethos with him.

They knew that they couldn’t get over each other, but they still couldn’t be together.

Daniel’s tears dried up from the breeze while he watched in a daze as Alice disappeared from his sight. He had never felt that the world was as full of hopelessness and helplessness as it was right now.

“Why are you crying, Daddy?” asked Casper naively.

Daniel quickly wiped his tears away and crouched down to be on a level with Casper. As he looked at his son, he thought of how much he owed them over the years, and the grief within him caused tears to well up in his eyes.

Suppressing the urge to cry, he replied, “I’m sad because you and Mommy are about to leave.”

Casper reached his hand out to wipe the tears away from Daniel’s face. As his warm little hand tickled Daniel’s face, Daniel couldn’t control himself for a moment, and tears streamed down his face again.

Casper tried to wipe Daniel’s tears away, but he couldn’t do so no matter how hard he tried. Those aboard the plane urged him again, so he said to Daniel, “Daddy, I’m leaving now. I’ll call you once I get off the plane.”

Daniel answered with a choke in his voice, “Alright. Remember to come and play with me during the holidays.”

Casper then boarded the plane before waving his little hand at Daniel.

Daniel also waved at Casper before watching as the cabin door closed and the plane took off, taking Casper and Alice away from this land.

Watching as the plane disappeared from his sight, Daniel crouched down helplessly and let himself cry.

After a while, a few people came over and surrounded him.

Michael had never seen the manly Daniel crying so hopelessly. He had bluffed his way through the seven continents and five oceans with his plausible tongue, but there was still something that he couldn’t handle.

Michael also understood that what was happening to Daniel on this day would happen to him later. He and Sophia would have to face the same problem sooner or later.

Family name matters, after all…

Cethosians were very obsessed with family names. Michael left the Fletcher Family and severed ties with them back then, giving up his family name to leave the opportunity to his sister. He roamed the world publicly under the name of Taylor Murray and secretly as an anonymous. In the end, however, he had his name listed back in the Fletcher Family’s genealogy record book since he couldn’t let go of his family name.

Anonymous? Ha… who would want to be anonymous if they were given a choice?

 

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1005

Sophia didn’t know whether Lucy would still save Sandra’s skin this time. For now, though, she had to admit that Lucy had dealt with the incident perfectly, for everyone responsible for the incident had been held accountable. She fired the personnel involved, apologized, and paid the compensation fees immediately, winning the support of many fans of Serpent cell phones.

Contrary to Sandra—who secretly had someone spread the news around—she held a press conference and apologized publicly, making her look more credible.

She had really left nothing to chance!

Such an enemy was the most ruthless and hardest to deal with!

If it weren’t for Sandra, Lucy would probably have ruined Dragon Eye cell phones’ reputation for good this time.

This was precisely what Sophia was certain of. She had been hoping that Sandra, Lucy’s stupid partner, would stir up some trouble. As she had expected, Sandra did exactly that!

Having finished watching the press conference’s live broadcast, Sophia immediately called Michael—who was doing some filming in another part of the country—and told him to delete the video of Judge biting a Serpent mobile phone that he had previously posted. Unexpectedly, Michael acted faster than she did. Not only did he delete the video, he also issued a public apology.

He also frankly admitted that it was quite reckless of him to have posted such a video.

Sophia also took the initiative to get in touch with Lucy’s team to discuss making peace with each other. They even purposely let the media photograph them doing so.

With that, the incident was over. Serpent and Dragon Eye were now independent of each other, and they would compete in the future by relying solely on their strength.

…

Sandra was still in disbelief as she watched the news coverage about Lucy and Sophia making peace with each other just like this.

How could this be possible? How could they possibly bury the hatchet when things have progressed to this point? Lucy is Michael’s ex! Did Sophia really shake hands and make peace with her just like that?

Now that both Lucy and Sophia pleaded ignorance while Sandra had cleared Dragon Eye’s reputation single-handedly, everyone placed the blame on her.

Lucy had taken the responsibility upon herself for the smearing of Dragon Eye cell phones, and she fired several responsible personnel to smooth things over. However, the matter of Glory Entertainment signing double contracts could no longer be concealed. Moreover, nude photos of Nicholas Yates spread widely, completely tarnishing the image of a good father that he had taken so much effort to establish!

All his endorsement contracts and film contracts were terminated unilaterally. He could no longer appear in the second season of ‘Where Are We Going, Dad?’ as scheduled, and all his scenes in the two films he had acted in lately were all cut and reshot directly.

The money-spinner collapsed just like that!

Glory Entertainment’s stock price plummeted all the way until it hit limit-down.

It could be said that Nicholas was finished as a celebrity, for he also had a hand in the double contracts. Similarly, Sandra couldn’t escape the responsibility for this.

Sandra gnashed her teeth in hatred as she watched from the news how Lucy had put all the blame on her.

All of you are morally perfect people! All of you are right, and I am the only person who has done wrong!

Sitting in her office, Sandra smashed everything within arm’s reach while looking at the spectacular view of Bayside City outside the building with a malicious look in her eyes.

It wasn’t easy for her to work her way back then from being an unknown swimmer to being the Young Lady Mitchell that she was today.

She would never allow anyone to pose a threat to her position.

Suddenly, an idea that had never occurred before came into her mind.

With a ferocious look in her eyes, she put out the cigarette between her fingers and found her laptop back. Her laptop was manufactured by Michel Group. Surprisingly, it was still usable even after she had dropped it many times.

Her fingers typed on the keyboard before she soon sent out an email.

Then, she called Lucy. As she had expected, it was Lucy’s assistant who answered the phone call, for Lucy had blocked her number on her own cell phone.

“I’m sorry, Miss Sandra. The Edwards Group has terminated all collaboration with you, so please don’t call us again.”

Sandra’s lips curled into a sinister sneer as she held her cell phone. “I have just sent an email to Miss Edwards’ official mailbox. Take a look at it first, and then tell Lucy to call me.”

The assistant hung up. She didn’t want to pay attention to Sandra, but she still took a look at Lucy’s official mailbox. Her job was to clean up Lucy’s mailbox every day anyway.

Finally, she saw the email Sandra had sent over. Not a word was written in the email—only a photo was attached. After the photo was downloaded, a high-definition photo that seemed to have been taken secretly in a bar showed up on the monitor.

The photo showed Lucy and a man sitting in a booth in the bar. Lucy—who was usually forceful and vigorous, as if she had no femininity in her—sat on the man’s lap with her arms wrapped around his neck while staring at him tenderly. Her red lips parted slightly, as if she was saying something to him.

One could tell from the look in a woman’s eyes whether she was in love with someone.

Lucy’s eyes were shining in the photo, so one could tell that she was truly in love with the man.

Dressed in a white shirt, the man gently held Lucy’s waist with his long and thin fingers while speaking cheek-to-cheek with her. His face wasn’t visible since only his back was photographed, but one could still tell his relationship with Lucy at a glance.

Shocked, the assistant sent the photo to Lucy.

Meanwhile, Sandra waited for Lucy to call her.

Lucy must have never expected this. I even found out who the man was, and I have many photos and videos of them!

Lucy had dated the man secretly for many years. They started dating as early as nearly ten years ago, which was before she started dating Michael!

She openly dated Michael while going steady with the man the whole time. She even wanted to unite with the Michel Family by marriage, and she had a few other boyfriends while dating Michael!

She was so disgusting!

God only knew what would give her the right to compete for the position of the head of the Edwards Family after their scandalous affair was exposed!

As Sandra had expected, Lucy called her in person after a while. “Sandra, I’ll help you deal with the aftermath of your problems, but you must keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, I don’t mind making you unable to speak anymore!”

…

Time really flew; it was June in the blink of an eye, and Michael had gone overseas to act in a film.

Michael had wanted to have Cooper’s son registered in his household before the Ancestors’ Day and have himself registered in Cooper’s household before the Dragon Boat Festival. Unexpectedly, Sophia secured the dealership rights for Dragon Eye, and the series of events that followed forced him to repeatedly put off his plan to have Linus removed from Cooper’s household registry.

He decided to proceed with his plan on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. He must have a son registered in Cooper’s household on that day!

The presale of Dragon Eye cell phones in Cethos finally started. Now that the cell phones’ ratings were positive again, many businesses joined the presale. There were many authorized dealers, distributors, and retailers to ensure that the cell phones were available for sale in big cities as much as possible.

A widespread promotional campaign for the Dragon Eye cell phones had begun before the presale. The film ‘The Winter Breakthrough’ had finalized its release date, and the promotion campaign for the film had started. The key members of the film crew did roadshows in many parts of the country to promote their new film. The cell phone commercial that Drake appeared in was released with good reviews, so Sophia had him take his cell phone to the roadshows to boost Dragon Eye’s popularity a little.

The TV drama ‘I Am the Village Chief 2’ also began to be broadcasted on Cethos Central Television. Due to Michael’s guest appearance in this drama, the drama became a hit and established itself as a classic local TV drama. It even won many awards and was broadcasted on local TV stations before being shown on Cethos Central Television. Now that Dragon Eye had become one of the drama’s sponsors, Michael also returned for two episodes in the drama, playing the heroine’s first boyfriend.

Sophia took the opportunity to insert an advertisement into the TV drama.

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1004

There was a public outcry when Sandra spread the news. Gosh, how could there be such a thing?

Serpent actually bribed the spokesperson for Dragon Eye in secret and threatened him to openly sling mud at Dragon Eye’s cell phones! Everything he said about his cell phone being broken and his important personal information being leaked after hacking were all outright lies!

Unexpectedly, their competitors took this opportunity to add insult to injury by releasing a mixture of genuine and false ‘leaked data’, making a big deal out of this and even drawing the attention of the police and the Taxation Bureau!

It was unknown whether these pieces of evidence were released by Sandra’s team to save their own skin, nor was it known if these pieces of evidence were obtained by Sophia’s team, who didn’t know whether Nicholas threw mud at Dragon Eye of his own free will or at Lucy’s coercion. Still, Dragon Eye’s reputation had been saved.

Sandra really clutched at straws right now to whitewash what she had done. She kept hyping up this issue to try to play down the matter about the double contracts.

The nude photos and the casting couch were no big deal, but the double contracts and tax evasion would drive her to her death. She would really lose all standing and reputation if this was found out!

Now that her life was at stake, she wouldn’t hesitate even if she would offend Lucy!

Just when everyone was talking about the incident, Harry posted a photo of a Dragon Eye cell phone being used as an ashtray, which again caused a heated public discussion about Dragon Eye cell phones’ quality.

Moreover, Michael rode on the wave of this incident’s popularity by posting the video of him playing fetch with Judge using the cell phones of those two brands. He didn’t even pixelate the cell phones’ logos. The photos showed how the Serpent cell phone was about to disintegrate at any minute when Judge sank its teeth into it. On the contrary, the Dragon Eye cell phone remained intact, immediately showing the contrast between the quality of the two cell phones.

The public and the cell phone fans’ enthusiasm for Dragon Eye cell phones was immediately rekindled. Some technology-focused influencers and celebrities also received the Dragon Eye cell phones in advance. After trying the cell phones themselves, they shared what they thought of the cell phones, arousing public anticipation toward Dragon Eye cell phones again.

When Lucy saw the news, she really wished she could kill Sandra, the idiot, on the spot.

Sandra thought she had hidden her tracks, but in reality, Lucy could tell at a glance that she was the culprit.

She spoiled my well-hatched plan just like this! Moreover, she even dared to place all the blame on me!

However, after her anger subsided, Lucy decided to resign herself to this reality.

She should never have worked together with Sandra in any way from the very beginning. That lady could get her in trouble anytime!

It was indeed Lucy who had proposed competing for the endorsement deal back then. It was very normal for a spokesperson to be replaced or removed. There were even cases where the leading actors had signed the contracts to act in films, only to be removed after the filming started. This kind of thing was a common occurrence.

Competing for endorsement deals wasn’t something new either.

It wasn’t Lucy’s idea to discredit Dragon Eye cell phones, but she had indeed tacitly consented to this.

Right now, Lucy had calmly taken the blame; she decided to take it as the price she had to pay for her ignorance and tacit permission back then. What she needed to think about was how to remedy the situation.

After the incident broke out, everyone was waiting for Lucy’s response.

Meanwhile, Sandra was gleefully waiting for her to pick a fight with Sophia.

Sophia was also waiting for Lucy’s next move so that she could decide what to do next.

Their wait didn’t take long. A few days after Sandra released the evidence and caused a wide and heated discussion, Lucy, the agent for Serpent mobile phones in Cethos, immediately held a press conference.

Upon seeing the news, Sophia immediately turned on her computer to watch the live broadcast.

That’s so quick of her; she’s actually holding the press conference on Monday!

Stanley and the others also gathered around Sophia and her computer to watch how Lucy would deal with this.

At the start of the press conference, Lucy bowed and apologized to the camera. “As Serpent mobile phone’s exclusive agent, I can find no excuse to shirk my responsibility when such an unpleasant thing has happened. Whatever has been done wrong was wrong, so I’m willing to apologize to society for what my team and I have done wrong. I’m sorry. I’d also like to apologize to the fans who have been supporting Serpent mobile phones. I’m sorry to have disappointed you all. I have fired those responsible for this incident, but I don’t want to shirk my responsibility. I have to take most of the blame for this incident. I hereby wish that the numerous fans of Serpent mobile phones can give me another chance. I’ll make sure to lead Serpent mobile phones to greater heights and create another remarkable legend.”

With that, she bowed again and answered the reporters’ questions in detail.

“Miss Lucy, may I ask if you signed with Nicholas Yates on purpose back then?”

Lucy answered, “It was Miss Sandra Mitchell, my former business partner, who proposed signing Nicholas to be the spokesperson for Serpent mobile phones, and she even offered to lower the endorsement fee to compete for the endorsement deal. I have terminated all collaboration contracts with her after this incident.”

“Did you know about Nicholas Yates’ smearing of Dragon Eye cell phones in advance? Did you take part in it?”

Lucy answered coherently, “I didn’t know about this until after the incident. However, I have to take responsibility for letting the incident worsen instead of informing the public in time about this. I’m willing to apologize and pay the compensation fees for the unwelcome effects of this incident on Dragon Eye cell phones.”

Another reporter then asked, “What do you think of the incident where Mr. Taylor Murray played fetch with a dog using a Serpent mobile phone and posted a video of it? Do you think of this as a kind of provocation toward Serpent mobile phones by Dragon Eye cell phones? Will you take legal action against Mr. Taylor Murray?”

Lucy responded frankly, “I have watched the video as well. As an internationally well-known cell phone brand, Dragon Eye has always been the benchmark in the high-end cell phone industry. The quality and operation system of its cell phones indeed surpass many similar cell phones by a great margin, so I have to admit that Serpent mobile phones are inferior to Dragon Eye cell phones. The video only illustrated the truth visually, so I don’t think it is slander for Serpent mobile phones.”

…

Lucy apologized, and Dragon Eye cell phones’ reputation was saved. It was all Sandra and Nicholas’ fault. Lucy had done wrong, but she had publicly apologized and paid the compensation fees, making her innocent instantly.

This incident ended just like this by steering the public opinion a little. Everyone was satisfied since Serpent and Dragon Eye had made peace with each other.

Back in Plum Technology’s building, Sophia and her team finished watching the live broadcast of Lucy’s press conference. She didn’t shut down her computer until Lucy finished answering the reporters’ questions and left.

The fact that Lucy, the Young Lady of the Edwards Family, apologized so frankly truly gave her some stress… This seemed so familiar, for what happened was similar to the previous incident when King’s dog-abuse matter came to light. While Sandra was still making excuses for herself and threatening the people involved, Lucy had readily stepped forward to apologize and pay the compensation fees. Also, she promised to shut down King for good even though the brand had just established itself.

The early-stage investment required to establish a luxury brand was huge, but the profit would be very handsome when the brand was established later. King was at the stage where it was about to make money after its fame and brand reputation were brought about by the huge investment, yet Lucy shut it down for good without hesitation. Currently, the domestic luxury pet supplies market was monopolized by Sophia’s Pourl, whereas King had withdrawn from the market completely.

This meant that all the money that had been invested previously had gone down the drain!

Yet this was how bold and resolute Lucy was.

Back then, she even cleaned up the mess Sandra had created without leaving any loose ends.

 

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1006

At the end of the drama’s first season, the heroine finally got together with the male protagonist who was a labor contractor. Together, they persuaded the villagers and successfully developed the village, building a resort that promoted tourism in the area. Because of that, everyone in the village became rich and lived in happiness, causing their village to be known far and wide as a wealthy one.

At the beginning of the second season, the village was envied by another village. The resort was defamed by unethical reporters, causing its business to slack for a period of time.

Feeling extremely anxious, the heroine contacted Miles—her ex-boyfriend who worked as a reporter in the city—to have him write an objective news report for them. Miles had become the newspaper’s editor-in-chief after a few years, so the news report he wrote would certainly be read by many.

Showing up again, Miles came to the village to uncover the actual situation. After learning of the truth, he promised to write a news report for the heroine and inform the public of the actual situation. Unexpectedly, the male protagonist stumbled upon their meeting and misunderstood them. Thinking that they still had feelings for each other, he chased after Miles with a hoe in his hand, scaring Miles into running along the river bank.

All the villagers came out and watched as the male protagonist chased after Miles by the river. Frightened, Miles took out his cell phone and hurled it at the male protagonist, causing the male protagonist’s head to bleed. Angered, the male protagonist smashed Miles’ cell phone using his hoe before throwing Miles and his mobile device into the river.

The heroine was so frightened that she jumped into the river after Miles to save him. Shocked, the male protagonist jumped into the river to save them both.

In the end, Miles was out of danger after being saved from drowning; he was quickly sent to the hospital. With the heroine’s explanation, the male protagonist learned about what had actually happened, so he bowed and apologized to Miles. Furthermore, he went down to the river himself and searched for ages to retrieve Miles’ cell phone and camera that had fallen into the river.

Unfortunately, the camera broke after being submerged in the water for too long, and all important, work-related photos saved in it were all gone. Overwhelmed with regret, the male protagonist slapped himself across the face.

However, he was surprised when Miles’ cell phone managed to turn on, and some of the work-related photos Miles had taken were backed up on it.

In the end, Miles forgave the male protagonist since he was moved by the latter’s sincerity. Returning to the city with the photos he had taken, he wrote a favorable news report for them and had it published on the newspaper’s front page, attracting the society’s attention and clearing the village of the false accusations. With that, the resort was able to resume its business.

The day the resort reopened for business, the male protagonist invited Miles over. Miles couldn’t help taking pictures with his cell phone, expressing his wonder at the village’s changes over the past few years.

As the camera zoomed in, the logo of the cell phone in Miles’ hand was displayed perfectly. It was none other than the logo of Dragon Eye.

Everyone in the family was speechless when they finished the advertisement.

The corners of Cooper’s mouth twitched. This advertisement… had no traces of a commercial at all!

The plot was very embarrassing, but after the episodes were broadcasted, Dragon Eye cell phones instantly increased in popularity throughout the vast countryside.

At the moment, Cethos was still internationally recognized as a developing and underdeveloped country. Its rural population was three times that of its urban population, so the market in the vast countryside, the suburbs, and the pastoral areas were huge.

In fact, Cethos’ GDP per capita was very high, and its citizens’ purchasing power was almost as strong as a developed country’s. They put on a weak front internationally, knowing that one mustn’t reveal their wealth. Furthermore, Cethos’ Internet censorship prevented foreigners from understanding what Cethos was actually like through the Internet. Most of the citizens from other countries still thought that Cethosians were so poor that they couldn’t even afford to eat tea eggs.

Therefore, many luxury brands weren’t very optimistic about entering the Cethosian market. Dragon Eye had previously been afraid of entering the Cethos too; this was not only because of Cooper’s apprehensions, but also because the brand was worried that Cethosians couldn’t afford luxury goods. Consequently, they wouldn’t be able to maintain a steady stream of sales.

After touring the area, a surprised Alice realized that this country was the complete opposite of what others assumed it to be. In fact, international news coverage of this country wasn’t accurate at all; this country was so well-developed that one could scan QR codes to donate money while visiting a remote temple deep in the mountains. Smartphones were very common; Serpent mobile phones were commonly used even in areas that looked impoverished.

In the end, she decided to sell Dragon Eye cell phones in Cethos.

Sophia didn’t disappoint her either; after a week of presales, a total of 3,000,000 cell phones were sold in advance. Dragon Eye cell phones’ sales volume couldn’t match Serpent mobile phones, but they put themselves firmly in second place.

Besides Dragon Eye cell phones’ quality and reputation, Sophia’s hard work also played a role in this.

Alice had chosen her as the agent mainly because she was so utterly shameless, using every opportunity to advertise the cell phones.

Cooper had been observing the presales lately. He found that Sophia’s advertisements were everywhere, which was simply exhausting.

Inserting advertisements into TV dramas and films was fine, and it was necessary to promote the cell phones via LED screens on various buildings and large screens in different malls. However, Sophia also advertised Dragon Eye cell phones through TV commercials, web portals, video-streaming applications, pre-show ads, and posters at bus stops… She even had the advertisement for Dragon Eye cell phones spray-painted onto the walls in the vast countryside!

After watching enough episodes of ‘I Am the Village Chief 2’ for the day, Sophia cracked and ate melon seeds in the Edwards Residence while speaking to Cooper. “I’ve looked at the result of this presale, Dad. The sales volume in the countryside is about the same as the sales volume in urban areas—this shows that my approach is right. Let’s look at the eastern coastal areas in particular; the sales volume there is the highest, nearly exceeding that of the urban areas. Other countries always go through the process of urbanization before going through the process of deurbanization; the rich are first centered in urban areas before they leave the cities to gather in the suburbs. Cethos seems quite different from other countries, though. The purchasing power of citizens in the countryside can’t be underestimated, for there are still many hidden wealthy people. The prices of our cell phones and Serpent mobile phones are quite reasonable; other people spend thousands on Serpent for the sake of their pride, but they spend thousands on our cell phones for the phones’ quality. Therefore, I placed emphasis on the cell phones’ quality while advertising them. We can’t use the same selling points as Serpent mobile phones since we can’t win against them for the time being.”

Listening to Sophia’s words, Cooper stroked the cat as he nodded repeatedly.

He didn’t expect Sophia to know quite well that the main buyers of Serpent cell phones were the petit bourgeoisie in the city. Since they couldn’t afford Dragon Eye’s high-end cell phones, they could only buy Serpent cell phones, which were the best low-end mobile devices. Evidently, Serpent did quite a good job in marketing its cell phones.

Sophia was now trying to avoid the main buyers of Serpent cell phones while looking for other breakthroughs.

Sophia then continued, “Dad, Uncle Linus—why don’t you two think of some advertising slogans for me? The advertising slogans used in the countryside and the suburbs have to be changed from time to time. I came up with several ideas as well. How does ‘Dragon Eye—you’d only need one for life’ sound? Does it sound good to you?”

Cooper was at a loss for words.

“With quality as good as Dragon Eye cell phones, you’re looking at your next family heirloom!”

“Dragon Eye cell phones are second to none; just wait till you hear praises from everyone.”

Throughout the entire time, Cooper was rendered speechless.

Sophia said, “Dad? Uncle Linus? Say something! I’m thinking of organizing a sales promotion in the countryside. Those who buy the 16GB version of Dragon Eye cell phones will get free toilet paper, whereas those who buy the 64GB version of Dragon Eye cell phones will get a bucket of peanut oil for free. Since it’s the busy farming season, those who buy the 128GB version of Dragon Eye cell phones will get a packet of chemical fertilizers for free…”

Cooper was still speechless.

After saying so much without getting a reply from Cooper, Sophia became angry. “Hmph!”

Cooper also felt helpless. He didn’t know how to respond to Sophia’s words, for what she said was obviously well beyond the scope of his knowledge!

Linus also frowned as he didn’t know what to say in response to Sophia’s words.

However, Sophia turned her head away and started speaking to Michael.

Michael had been filming his scenes in another part of the country recently. Still, he managed to find time to come home and take a look around every once in a while. Having just come back on this day, he immediately responded to Sophia and answered, “You’re right. The urban residents’ purchasing power is strong, but our cell phones haven’t become well-known in the country; we can’t win against renowned cell phone brands like Serpent if we compete with them in terms of sales volume in urban areas. We can market our cell phones in rural areas surrounding the cities. Let’s secure sales in rural areas to lay the foundation first before gradually entering the cities. I think that it’s okay to give those who buy Dragon Eye cell phones a block of cured meat or a link of sausages. If this is not enough, we can even distribute a packet of canola seeds to whoever enters the shop!”

Both Cooper and Linus were speechless.

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1007

It looks like Michael’s still the one who understands me the best, Sophia thought as she sat next to Michael, rubbing her cat and watching him talk.

No matter how I look at him, he still looks so good because I love him—he even has so many suggestions!

Michael said, “I’ll introduce you to several reliable fertilizer factories; let’s go together when we have the time and see if we can work something out with them.”

“Sure! Indeed, my hubby has the most ideas!” Sophia smiled.

Michael continued, “We can even organize a lucky draw event; people will get to enter the lucky draw by purchasing the phone, and the winner will get a tractor. I know a few tractor companies that we can go and check out some other day.”

Excited, Sophia exclaimed and said, “Alright! We’ll go together!”

Meanwhile, Cooper and Linus were speechless. Michael is supposed to be an internationally renowned movie star—why does he know these kinds of people?!

Michael had taken some time off from work to see Sophia and Carmen; since Sophia wanted to survey Dragon Eye’s situation in the countryside, Michael trailed along happily. Cooper joined in as well because he wanted to know if his beloved daughter was walking down the right path.

They couldn’t go very far because of their tight schedules, so Sophia decided to visit the suburbs of Riverdale City first—the place where she grew up. Michael also took the opportunity to leave behind clues in Riverdale so that Cooper would notice them and locate his son!

The group went over to the tractor and fertilizer factory introduced by Michael first; after visiting the actual site, they decided to sign a working contract. After the factory visit, Michael took Sophia to Riverdale City to visit the place where she used to grow up.

Riverdale City had developed well over the years; just like any typical drama, they managed to turn the place into a tourist spot. Since this was Sophia’s home, Michael had also invested in several resorts and clothing factories to boost the town’s economy; he even built a highway and a railway here.

The town’s authorized Dragon Eye retail store was still under renovation, but Dragon Eye posters were everywhere to be seen—Cooper was speechless when he noticed an entire wall of cheesy advertisements about it.

“The Dragon Eye phone is the treasure of the village!”

“The latest agricultural news with the Dragon Eye in your hand!”

“Don’t fret when it gets wet—Dragon Eye is the best!”

Dragon Eye was one of Cooper’s earlier products, and he passed it over to Alice after developing the device. He created a high-end cell phone that was primarily meant for businessmen, but Sophia had managed to turn it into…

He couldn’t even recognize the phone that he made!

Being waterproof and fall-resistant, it was a magical machine that won the hearts of the villagers; the overwhelmingly positive response toward the product had exceeded Cooper’s expectations.

Nonetheless, will the theme ‘A City Within the Village’ really work in our favor?

After that, Michael took Sophia to a small hillside where she used to live. There was an old, grey house where most of the paint on the wall outside had peeled off. Hidden deep in the mountains, the house was surrounded by beautiful greenery; it looked lonely and desolated, seeming as though it had been forgotten by the world.

Michael took out a key and opened the door of the house. As Sophia and Cooper walked inside, they realized that the room was quite clean. In fact, it seemed like someone had cleaned the house regularly with its well-placed furniture and decorations; it was as if the house owners had just left.

“Look, this is where you grew up. You used to sleep here.” Michael pointed at a brick bed. Sophia was amazed as she sat on the brick bed and touched it gently. This was the place where she grew up!

The house belonged to Sophia’s grandfather. After her two uncles had gone their separate ways, only Annabel and her parents lived there. When Annabel passed away, Sophia was sent to live with her grandparents.

When both her grandparents passed later on, the young Sophia was left unattended in this empty house while she struggled to stay alive; the village committee and the clan leaders decided to send Sophia over to her uncle’s care and moved her to town. With that, the place became deserted.

Michael then inherited this house as Sophia’s husband and preserved it well by hiring people to take care of it throughout the years. Sophia’s school awards were still glued on the mud wall, and the tabletops were clean and dusted. Although they were old and yellowed, there were still some well-preserved photos in picture frames.

Cooper saw a picture of Sophia when she was a child. She looked dark and ugly, but her clothes were clean even though they looked old and frumpy. With her hair nicely combed, she looked very lively with a red scarf and a little bag as she posed for a photograph under the persimmon tree.

There were also photos of Annabel, but there were only one or two left. There was also a photograph of Annabel standing under the persimmon tree in front of their house; her head cocked to the side with a faint smile, but the picture was so old that it could no longer be restored.

Cooper held the pictures in his hands as he looked at photographs of Sophia and her mother standing under the same tree; his eyes welled up with tears.

I owe them both too much, too much indeed…

The weeds in the yard had been cleared up, but the old persimmon tree was still there. Carmen asked Linus what it was as she looked up and stood under the persimmon tree, and Cooper quickly took a picture of her.

They left after taking a group photo underneath the tree. Sophia wanted to take the photos with her, but she thought better of it and used her cell phone to take some photos of it instead.

Michael wanted to bring Sophia to the school she used to study at, so they took Carmen and left first.

Now, the village had completely transformed itself; as Michael walked through the village, the villagers quickly rushed out to see him. Not only was he a well-known movie star, he was also recognized as the greatest son-in-law in the village.

This master was so great that he opened factories, built roads and schools in the village and gave the villagers a comfortable life. Most of the villagers were descendants of the Johnsons, so he had relatives everywhere he went and they treated him with such kindness—it felt like he was everyone’s own son-in-law.

Meanwhile, Cooper decided to stay at the house. Standing alone under the persimmon tree in silence, he placed his hand where Annabel had placed hers.

He looked up at the persimmon tree and remembered what Annabel had said to him 20 years ago.

“Coop, I planted a row of persimmon trees in front of my house using my own hands! I’ll bring you along to have a look at it when I have the chance—the persimmon fruits are really delicious! Here, these are some persimmon biscuits that I’ve made.”

It felt like their conversation was just yesterday, but once he opened his eyes, only the persimmon tree remained; Annabel was gone.

He raised his head as tears streamed down his face.

“Cooper…”

Unbeknownst to him, Linus was already at the entrance of the courtyard. On behalf of Alice, he had also followed Sophia to the village because he needed to survey Dragon Eye’s response in the village.

Cooper wiped his tears and looked back at Linus. “What’s the matter?”

“Some of the elders from the Johnson Family want to see you.”

Cooper nodded his head in response. A few seconds later, he slowly walked out of the small farmhouse and meticulously locked the front door and the courtyard’s gate before he left.

After all, this is Anna’s home…

There were many members of the Johnson Family in the village. As the area developed steadily over the years, their population flourished. The ancestral hall had been refurbished, and by the time Cooper arrived, he realized that there were many people waiting for him.

Linus had already inquired about them and introduced each person to Cooper.

“This is Sophia’s second uncle, and this is her grand-uncle…”

The elders sat from above and watched while the younger generations gathered around them. Cooper, whose identity was quite extraordinary, also sat down on a chair.

Although they did not know who this master was, the other master had reminded them that this master in front of them was even more powerful than the other!

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1008

Cooper had secretly been to the Johnson Family Village a few times, but he never met with the members of the Johnson Family. When they learned of his arrival this time, they called Cooper over.

Sophia’s great-grandfather was already over a hundred years old and could hardly speak clearly anymore. He was Annabel’s grandfather, and he had been living in Annabel’s uncle’s house.

As the person with the most authority in the Johnson Family, Annabel’s uncle spoke politely with Cooper and discussed the matter of moving Annabel’s grave.

Since Annabel was an unmarried woman when they buried her, it was very inauspicious according to the village’s rules; it meant that she couldn’t be reincarnated after her death, bringing disgrace to the family. Since Cooper had come back as Annabel’s husband and was recognized by the family, he was allowed to move her grave.

Cooper agreed to it and discussed the matter of moving Annabel’s grave with her family, showing respect and being polite to his wife’s elders.

While they talked about moving her grave, Annabel’s grandfather engaged in small talk with Cooper. As he looked at Cooper’s eyes with a face full of curiosity, he said in amazement, “Your eyes—are they naturally born that way?”

Cooper nodded. His pupils used to be black, but they gradually turned into a shade of blue when he entered adulthood; it was most likely due to the Michel Family’s strong genes!

The old man cracked a smile. This was probably his first time seeing such a strange pair of eyes—they looked much more beautiful than the foreigners’ eyes he had seen on television.

Someone spoke up and said, “Back then, Finian’s aunt and her husband weren’t able to conceive, so they adopted a child with blue eyes from abroad. That baby boy was very beautiful!”

Annabel’s grandfather and Cooper continued their conversation. Meanwhile, the younger generations started to talk among themselves.

It seemed like the family rarely got together; they could only meet each other during big occasions like this and talk, but it seemed that Finian’s aunt had quite the history. Once the topic was brought up, everyone joined in eagerly.

“The son that Finian’s aunt had adopted was really smart! Oh, I heard that he even made it onto television because he could recite sonnets at the tender age of three!”

“I have no idea where they adopted the boy from. Hey, Finian—weren’t you a driver at your aunt’s unit? Tell us about it.”

Finian, who was a guy probably in his forties, retorted angrily, “How would I know?! She’s not even my real aunt. We never got along well, and she was reluctant to talk to me. I was just a school bus driver around their unit, and we’d only greet each other when we met. Besides, they were both university professors—they couldn’t be bothered about their poor relative who drove a school bus! I don’t even remember much; my aunt has migrated for over 27 or 28 years now! They would send a few letters every once in a while during the first few years, but they haven’t been communicating with us for the past 20 years now. Heck, I’m not even sure whether they’re still alive or not… Back then, my aunt said that she had taken some time off to go back home, but she came back with a child instead. Tsk, a blue-eyed boy! The school teachers asked if they had adopted the child from abroad or if some international student had given the boy to my aunt because they didn’t dare to raise it! Those international students have messy social lives; they can only look for their father based on their skin color…”

Someone immediately rebuked his statement, “Hey! You’re lying! After your aunt left the village to go to college, she completely forgot about her poor relatives and hasn’t been back for the past 40 years!”

Finian argued loudly, “Nonsense! My aunt and her husband definitely came back 20 years ago! They both took leave from the university and hurried back to the village before going back to school. I was picking up my salary when they were at the finance department to claim their ticket money! I remember clearly that she had come back; they bought the ticket back to the village at 1.00PM and took the last bus back to the city at 8.00PM!”

The people laughed and continued to discuss Finian’s aunt; the woman had left the village to go to university before becoming a professor. However, no one realized that their conversation had sparked Cooper’s interest.

After Finian’s aunt visited the village and came back to school, she brought a child with her—a boy with blue eyes.

A boy with blue eyes!

Cooper’s blood from all over his body immediately rushed toward his brain as his fingers twitched uncontrollably in excitement.

A child with blue eyes!

He never thought of the possibility that his child would also have blue eyes. Even though there was only a quarter of the Michel Family’s bloodline in him, it was possible that the child…

It turned out that he had been looking at this matter the wrong way!

Cooper continued to patiently discuss the matter of moving Annabel’s grave with the elders of the Johnson Family before finally leaving the ancestral hall. After that, he went directly to the home of the man called Finian. Without any further delay, he asked him to recall the time his aunt brought the child back.

Finian was very respectful to this new master who suddenly appeared and said, “Give me a moment—I’ll go and look for my payslip. The time is printed on it, and I’ve kept it all these years. That was my first payslip, so it was a very monumental moment for me!”

He rummaged through his closet as he added, “Huh, it’s such a coincidence. Back then, I was only 19 years old when I went to the city and begged my aunt to help me out. She found me a job driving school buses. The school had withheld my salary for three months! I only received a salary of more than a hundred in the third month, but that was my first ever paycheck! Hence, I saved it!”

Then, he took out an iron box and found a yellowed payslip on the bottom. Cooper carefully took the payslip; the machine-printed payslip was very short, and it was dated a day after Sophia was born!

The day Finian received his salary was the day his aunt came back from her hometown; she was getting an reimbursement from the finance office for her bus ticket.

In other words, his aunt went back to the village at 1.00PM and returned to the city at 8.00PM that same day.

Sophia and her brother were born that afternoon!

Cooper stared at the payslip and asked Finian nervously, “What’s the relationship between your aunt and Angelica, a nurse from the town’s medical center?”

Finian replied, “Angelica is her cousin. They are both from the same generation, so they keep in touch with each other occasionally.”

Cooper’s heart was pounding in his chest. He was almost certain that the child Finian’s aunt had taken away was his!

He asked carefully again, “That boy… Have you seen him?”

Finian answered straightforwardly, “I’ve seen him once. My aunt resigned two months in advance and migrated a few days later after they got the child. I borrowed the school’s car to send them to the airport—I even saw my aunt holding the child! He had round blue eyes with blond hair, and he looked very beautiful! They said an international student secretly gave birth to him; it just so happened that my aunt and her husband couldn’t have children, so they adopted him instead.”

…

After listening to Cooper’s story, Cooper patted his shoulder and walked out of the house. He stood at the entrance of that small farmhouse and lifted his head as he looked at the sky with tears pouring out of his eyes. I’m about to find my son! Do you see this, Anna? Our son is coming back soon!

 

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1009

After the whole family wandered around the countryside for a while, it was already very late by the time they reached Riverdale City. When they arrived home, Carmen had already fallen asleep in Sophia’s arms and looked adorable with her little red face. Sophia took Carmen to bed while Cooper printed out the photos he took today and placed them in his study room.

Annabel, Sophia and Carmen made up three generations born in different times and spaces, yet all of them had taken a photo under that persimmon tree. Cooper couldn’t help but smile as he looked at the photos. If only Annabel was still around…

He imagined the scene and laughed to himself, but he couldn’t stop himself from wiping away the tears that fell down his face.

When he came out of the study room, he saw Michael and Sophia hanging a big photo in the living room—it was the group photo they had taken earlier today in front of the persimmon tree. Michael had found someone to restore Annabel’s photo and photoshopped her next to Cooper. Cooper, Annabel and Linus stood alongside Sophia’s family of three, and all of them looked incomparably harmonious. Cooper felt tears stinging his eyes again as he stared at the group photo.

After Carmen had gone to bed, a few of them were watching TV in the living room. Sophia hurriedly turned on the TV to catch today’s episode of ‘I Am The Village Chief 2’ and was relieved that they were just in time. Snowball ran over and Sophia started to rub the dog with her bare feet while catching up on the drama series, munching on some peanuts happily at the same time.

At that moment, Michael realized he had learned this bad habit of using his feet to rub the dog from Sophia.

Not only does she use her feet to play with the dog, she even rubs Snowball with them!

Tsk… Previously, Sophia had even scolded him for being rude and using his feet to touch the dog. Now, he realized that the whole family lived like noble lords who used their feet to touch their dogs.

Even his father-in-law and brother-in-law were stretching their feet and rubbing it around the dog’s fur, so he was only following the family’s tradition. Michael felt like he was finally part of Cooper’s family.

…

After returning from the Johnson Family Village, Cooper resumed the search for his son. 30 years ago, only several women from Johnson Village had been able to enter college. Therefore, it was easy to track down Finian’s alleged aunt, the woman who took his son.

Finian’s aunt was a professor at a university in Bayside City. Her husband was her former classmate; after they graduated, they stayed and worked at the school until both of them became professors. She still couldn’t get pregnant at the age of 30, so they mysteriously adopted a child before resigning and emigrating to someplace else.

He followed this trail and personally went abroad to look for them. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the Cethosian couple who had migrated more than 20 years ago was still a mystery…

No matter how difficult it is, I must not give up. I have to find my son no matter what it takes!

Meanwhile, both the high-end and low-end versions of Dragon Eye were officially on sale in Bayside City; Alice was in charge of the only store in Cethos that sold the high-end version of Dragon Eye.

In a short period of time, dozens of retail stores selling the low-end version of Dragon Eye bloomed everywhere. With Dragon Eye stores sprouting up all around the country, they had a considerable amount of sales.

Sophia had spent a lot of resources to promote Dragon Eye; she put out advertisements everywhere with sky-high marketing costs, but she managed to achieve the desired effect of Dragon Eye in the end.

Michael had also gone abroad to shoot a movie, but since most of the scenes were based in Cethos, he returned to Bayside City after he was done with the foreign scenes. He shot the rest of the movie here, and he lived in Sophia’s house every now and then.

While Cooper was busy looking for his son, Michael became more comfortable around the house; he even deliberately rubbed a few of Cooper’s favorite cats with his feet.

Lots of great things were happening in Sophia’s household—it started off with Bubbles giving birth to a litter of black poodles!

Meanwhile, Snowball had given birth to a few black Samoyeds!

Black as a shadow, they looked nothing like their father apart from the color of their fur!

Sophia was dumbfounded when she saw the two litters of black puppies. Then, she took a broom and walked toward the culprit, Corrado—she wanted to give it a beating first!

However, Daniel managed to fool Cooper into thinking that black dogs were an auspicious omen, asking him to descend the mountains and return to name the black puppies once they were born.

Ever since Alice left, Daniel had gone back to the mountains; this time, Cooper summoned him to rush back down and name the two litters of black puppies.

Black dogs are good since they can guard the house! The more black dogs we have, the better we can keep evil at bay.

Cooper had really been brainwashed by Daniel; not only did he raise a litter of black dogs to watch over the house, he placed several wind chimes by the door to ward off evil spirits. He even utilized his knowledge in astrology to develop a fortune-telling app, using it every day to calculate his luck before heading out.

He continued to dabble in such methods and was always on the lookout for auspicious dates to look for his son before leaving the house.

He’s ruined…

While Cooper searched for his son all over the world with his fortune-telling app, Carmen acted in a few movies abroad under the stage name ‘Gianna’ and debuted in Cethos using her own name by endorsing the children’s smartwatch by Michel Digital.

The managing rights to this smartwatch in Cethos was once again taken over by Sophia, and she chose Carmen as their ambassador.

Recently, Carmen had been busy with her career as well. She had movies to shoot and school to attend; when everyone thought she was not serious about it, she had unexpectedly gone through with it. While Carmen went to kindergarten, she also went to acting classes during her vacation.

Meanwhile, Dragon Eye had taken the digital market by storm and completely changed the dynamics of the cell phone market in Cethos.

Sophia listened to Cooper’s advice and decided to plan a comeback banquet for herself. She had been back in Bayside City for more than a year now, but she hadn’t organized a formal banquet up until this day. Since Dragon Eye’s sales were doing well, she decided to hold a celebratory banquet and discussed it with Cooper.

Cooper had planned a grand banquet for Sophia before, but it was put on hold due to several issues; now was the best time to bring it up again.

The best option was to combine Sophia’s comeback along with the celebratory and reciprocal banquet; after all, they were going to send the invites to the same group of people.

Since that was the case, it had to be a grand banquet.

Cooper personally came back to organize this banquet for Sophia. There must not be any mistakes for his beloved daughter’s banquet! He had previously thought of gathering all the finest men in Bayside City and setting up blind dates for Sophia in secret, but now…

He pondered for a while before deciding on this plan. The thought of his son-in-law being only five years younger than him caused Cooper much grievance!

Sophia should be engaging with talented young men more often; he did not want to let Michael, the old man, tie her down!

Based on his own standards, Cooper chose a group of young and talented bachelors for Sophia to meet. Even if this fails, it would make Michael—that old guy—feel threatened at the very least! My daughter is not that easy to marry!

Later that evening, Michael was spending the night at Sophia’s house. He was in the midst of soaking his feet while chatting with Stanley via Messenger.

‘Uncle, It seems that Cooper—that old man—hasn’t given up on the idea of getting Sophia on a blind date! Our dating circle went into a frenzy today, and they’ve been talking about it for two days straight! When everyone heard that you and Sophia divorced, tons of people became excited to fight for her! Apparently, Cooper even issued a list of criteria for his son-in-law! I’ll send it over to you right now.’

 

My Dreamy Old Husband Chapter 1010

Men and women who excelled in all aspects of their lives, talented individuals like Stanley and Sean, men who had built an empire at a young age without falling in love or getting married—all of them were bound to be dragged by their families into Bayside City’s blind dating club for high society.

People in this circle were respectable figures; most of them busied themselves with their careers and were not particularly interested in marriage or love. Some of them had been forced to join the club by their families, while some of them joined voluntarily to look for a partner they could benefit from. Needless to say, these people belonged in the inner circle of the elites.

Unfortunately, Stanley was notoriously known in this circle—whenever he was forced to go on a blind date, a little girl would rush in all of a sudden before hugging him and calling him ‘Daddy’!

Eventually, nobody wanted to go on blind dates with him, but he continued to stay in the circle for the latest gossip; that was how he had found out about the latest news and immediately sent it over to Michael.

Michael wasn’t entirely sure whether Cooper was behind this, but when he glanced at the list of criteria Stanley had sent over, he could immediately tell that it was Cooper’s doing.

First of all, the candidate could not possess any criminal background—murder, arson, fraud, drug abuse, and crawling through a dog door were not allowed. Clearly, these rules were directed toward Michael; it seemed like that particular incident would haunt him for the rest of his life. The candidates were required to have a master’s degree at the very least, and they had to be under 35 years old… nothing was in his favor! He even had to take his wife’s family name! If anyone fulfilled all the conditions above, they could prepare a thorough resume with their photos attached and send it to the front desk of Mitchell International Energy and Technology.

His father-in-law was causing problems in the dark, and Michael viciously read the information over and over again.

As Michael suddenly caught sight of Chrysanthemum—Cooper’s favorite cat—walking past him with its tail wagging, he placed his wet feet on Chrysanthemum and gave it a thorough rub. This cat was the descendant of a big, orange cat Cooper used to keep when he was younger, so it had learned its ancestral skill of fighting for attention; it let out a long meow. The cat was one of Cooper’s favorites as he would kiss it and hug it while he raised the cat off the ground. Michael had often used it as a foot wipe and rubbed his feet against Chrysanthemum, and the cat would lick its own wet fur.

While it meowed at Michael continuously, he picked up the phone as he stood up and replied to Stanley’s message. ‘OK.’

‘Uncle, why don’t I go and try out as well? I can be your wingman and help you get rid of all the other ugly fellas!’

‘Alright. Bring a few more people with you.’ Michael agreed.

‘OK.’ Stanley messaged in response.

When Michael returned to the room after washing his feet, Sophia was still playing her game. As he beat around the bush and asked Sophia about her ‘blind dates’, she seemed clueless about Cooper’s plans; she only knew that Cooper was throwing a banquet for her, and he had invited several celebrities and business partners too.

For example, he invited the fertilizer and tractor company’s director whom they had signed a contract with two days ago.

After probing around, Michael immediately understood the situation; his father-in-law was up to no good again.

Michael would never allow a group of fresh, young men to parade in front of his wife, but since Cooper had sent them formal business invitations, it was hard for Michael to stir things up.

Oh, my dear father-in-law!

Weren’t fathers-in-law supposed to be more fond of their sons-in-law the more they got to know each other? Michael had done so much, yet Cooper still turned against him!

He thought that he had become the perfect son-in-law; much to his surprise, he still couldn’t win over his father-in-law’s heart.

Since my father-in-law wants to play around, I’ll just keep him company!

After writing his resume, Michael went over to Mitchell International Energy and Technology and submitted his application at the front desk. He wanted to see the look on his father-in-law’s old face when he saw his old son-in-law there!

When Michael arrived at the makeshift matchmaking counter of Mitchell International Energy and Technology, he did not expect to see so many people present—there were familiar faces like Ian, who had just been circumcised not too long ago. He wanted to fight for a chance as well.

His d*ck was less than 10cm long, and Sophia had even laughed at it when she saw his nudes; who gave him the courage to come here? Did he think that circumcision would change the fact that his manhood was short and soft?!

Sophia wouldn’t even look at him! Dana, that monster, is here as well!

Her assistant took her resume and went to the front desk, but she was rejected by the receptionist there. Dana protested with defiance and said, “Why can’t I sign up? You guys never mentioned that women weren’t allowed to sign up, am I right?!”

Unable to refute Dana’s claim, the receptionist flipped through Cooper’s requirements. Indeed, there wasn’t a rule saying that women could not participate; what mattered was the candidate’s age and conduct. It seemed like Cooper had forgotten about gender…

It was like a chaotic circus of freaks!

The atmosphere at the registration counter changed when Michael appeared.

Oh, the ex-husband is here to watch the show.

With Cooper’s little act, Bayside City’s matchmaking circle knew that they had divorced. Soon enough, this piece of news had spread far and wide.

“Are you here too, Uncle?!” Stanley looked at Michael with surprise.

As Michael turned around, he saw Stanley followed by a dozen young men from the Fletcher Family; all of them had a stack of resumes in their hands…

Michael was completely dumbfounded.

Before he could come back to his senses, a man wearing a black suit with gold-rimmed glasses entered the building.

Unable to stop themselves, the Fletcher Family sucked in a cold breath when they realized who it was.

“Why the hell are you here, Quinton?!”

Quinton, who had disappeared for so long, appeared once more!

Dressed in a business suit with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, he looked like an intelligent gentleman with a resume in his hand. He smiled when he saw Michael and the others. “It’s a fair competition for everyone—why can’t I be here?”

After that, he placed his resume on the front desk.

The appearance of Quinton had the Fletcher Family’s men slowly losing their composure—especially Stanley.

“Damn it, you son of a b*tch!”

The hot headed Stanley charged up to Quinton and attacked him. The Fletcher men rushed forward and joined in on the fight, whereas Michael tried desperately to pull them apart.

The hatred between Quinton and the Fletcher Family could no longer be settled with just a fist fight; even though Quinton had already shook hands and made peace with Michael, Stanley still couldn’t control his emotions.

Quinton also recognized Stanley as the little son of a b*tch who shot him in the balls back then!

When enemies met, they lost all sense of control.

The two of them were engaged in such an intense scruffe that no one could pull them off each other.

Meanwhile, Cooper was actually upstairs watching from the CCTV, monitoring every boy that came in. The system would automatically analyze the other party’s background, and he’d record their details down before combining it with their resume for the next assessment.

He was going to personally pick the right boys to attend Sophia’s matchmaking banquet.

However, no one expected a fight to break out!

Cooper frowned and ordered the security guards who were at the scene, “Throw them out.”

The alarm bell rang loudly as Dimon, the new security chief of Mitchell International Energy and Technology, led the security team and rushed out to hold down the Fletcher Family’s men. In the midst of everyone’s uproar, the entire Fletcher Family was thrown out together with their resumes.

The Fletcher Family’s members only know how to fight!

At the entrance of Mitchell International Energy and Technology, Stanley and Quinton were still fighting.

Finally, Michael managed to separate the two with much effort; Stanley was still cursing and kicking when Michael dragged Quinton away from him.

He had a lot of mixed feelings about his brother. His birth disgusted him, but it was not his fault that he was born in Tanya’s belly.

Since Michael and Quinton already agreed that they were even, he wouldn’t bother him.

“I’ve warned you to never appear in Cethos again, Quinton! You know what will happen!”