My Dreamy Old Husband novel Chapter 208

Sophia ate her lunch in low spirits that afternoon. Furthermore, the wound left on her ankle by the laser scar removal had been aching a little, which was accompanied by some redness and swelling.

Having no appetite, she stopped eating after having only two mouthfuls of food. She then said sullenly, “I’m full already.”

Since this morning, Michael had noticed that his pretty, young wife seemed quite unhappy. Was it because of the matter about the Phantom Wolf? No, his instincts told him that it wasn’t the case.

He turned to look at Nathan, who looked at him in return. Staring at each other in silence, the father and son seemed to be communicating via telepathy once again.

She turned on her computer sullenly and stared at the game’s interface. Suddenly, she recalled something and went downstairs to the storeroom located in the basement.

The entire basement was filled with all kinds of miscellaneous items. There were many things in the storeroom, including Michael’s two cases of condoms, a great pile of cosmetics that Sophia had bought earlier, and toy cars that Nathan no longer played with.

Sophia searched the storeroom for a while and found the suitcase she had brought with her when she first came. The suitcase was worn, and it couldn’t be locked with a passcode. Her grandmother had brought it back home while collecting recyclable garbage back then. It was old but solid, and it worked well.

This small suitcase had accompanied her for many years. Sophia had brought it with her when she attended junior high and high school; when she was expelled from Riverdale High School in the end, she also took it with her. She had lived in Duckburgs with this suitcase, and she brought it with her when she came to live with Michael.

She opened the suitcase to see several pieces of clothing lying quietly inside. These were the clothes she had brought with her back then; she had worn them for several years, and many of them were gifts from her classmates. Lying quietly among these clothes was a set of neatly-folded Riverdale High School’s uniform. Inside the ziplock bag was a pair of used sneakers which she had worn for three years. They were old and worn out, but they were impeccably clean.

This old leather suitcase had been dumped here ever since she came to live with Michael. She never used its contents again, for her past seemed to have been buried along with this well-worn suitcase; the suitcase’s disuse represented her farewell to her former self.

Sophia then found an old wallet in the leather suitcase. The wallet was kept in a plastic bag, and she opened it to see a small stack of banknotes inside. These banknotes were old and tattered since they had been used several years ago; such a version of banknotes was probably impossible to find nowadays.

She sat on an old sofa while counting the stack of banknotes earnestly. The stack contained over ten banknotes in denominations of one cent, five cents, ten cents, twenty cents, one buck, and two bucks. They totaled five bucks no matter how she counted them.

She could still remember the prices back then—a drink bottle could be exchanged for five cents, whereas a ring-pull can could be exchanged for ten. She had no idea how much garbage her grandmother had collected just to save these five bucks; her grandmother had saved the money little by little just to make her happy during the New Year celebrations.

Since they were too impoverished back then, most of the banknotes they had come into contact with back then were of one cent, two cents, ten cents, twenty cents, one buck, and two bucks. Now that Sophia saw these banknotes once again, each of them looked so familiar to her.

She had been keeping these five bucks like they were a rare treasure; it was the first time she had ever received such a huge sum of money in her life, and she kept them since she had no idea how to spend them.

When she attended high school afterward, she had boarded at school with her tuition fees fully waived and was given an allowance, so she had no reason to spend these five bucks. She probably couldn’t use them anymore right now.

Sophia reminisced about the old times while counting the banknotes again and again. Each time she counted the banknotes, an inexplicable feeling of contentment surged up within her. She felt as though she was still her former self—the self whom she thought had gotten the whole world in her hands back then.

Sophia counted the banknotes for more than half an hour before leaving the storeroom in satisfaction. After that, she went back to her room to play online games.

The next day, Sophia got out of bed and pushed the bedroom door open to see Michael standing outside. He seemed to have just gotten out of bed as well, for his hair was still a little unkempt. Dressed in pink Foxy pajamas with his hood on, he pressed his lips together with his hands behind his back as if trying hard to suppress a smile. Then, he looked down at her and said, “Happy New Year, my chica.”

Sophia was puzzled. It was already the fourth day of the New Year, so wasn’t it a little too late to say ‘Happy New Year’ to her right now?

Much to her surprise, the instant Michael finished his sentence, he pulled his hand from behind his back to show a bulging red packet in it. He said, “Come—this is your New Year present from your hubby!”

Sophia was overjoyed. Was she getting a New Year’s present as well? Weren’t New Year presents given to members of the younger generation by their elders? Why would Michael give her a New Year present?

However, it would be a shame if she turned down the red packet gifted by her Lord. She took the red packet from him and said happily, “Thank you, my Lord!”

The instant she said the words out loud, she was overwhelmed with regret—how could she reveal her inner fangirl? She immediately corrected herself, saying, “Thank you, hubby!”

Michael gave her a secretive smile before turning around to enter his bedroom. Feeling content, he proceeded to brush his teeth.

On the other hand, Sophia was left confused; she couldn’t figure out why Michael had suddenly given her a red packet on the fourth day of the New Year. She went downstairs to have breakfast with the heavy red packet in her pocket, and she didn’t open it until she had finished eating her meal.

Much to her surprise, she opened the red packet not to find glistening red banknotes of a hundred bucks as she had expected, but a stack of old banknotes in small denominations instead.

Not only were there banknotes of one cent, two cents, ten cents, and twenty cents, there were coins too! No wonder the red packet was bulging—the values of the banknotes inside never exceeded two bucks!

At once, Sophia was pleasantly surprised as a kid who had gotten his New Year present for the first time.

She counted the money in her New Year present with satisfaction, and the money totaled exactly a hundred bucks no matter how she counted them. A large sum of a hundred bucks! At that instant, she felt as though she had gotten the whole world in her hands once again.

When she counted the money for the second time, she felt like she had in her hands not only the whole world but the entire solar system. When she counted the money for the third time, she felt like she had become the master of the entire Galactic System!

Nathan, who was standing aside as he looked on, simply couldn’t understand why Sophia was so excited upon seeing a pile of worn and tattered banknotes. These banknotes were old versions that had been obsolete before his birth, and they were no longer in circulation nowadays.

Hale suddenly came home carrying a pocketful of old banknotes and coins last night. These old versions of banknotes were no longer circulating in the market, and the banks had stopped issuing them. Even the currency collectors were unwilling to collect them since they had little collection value.

Michael had ordered Hale to either gather enough old banknotes and coins by that night or apologize by killing himself. Nobody knew how Hale had managed to gather so many old banknotes and coins within such a short amount of time.

Last night, Nathan secretly saw Michael counting the money alone in his study. He searched the old banknotes Hale had collected for small changes, gathering them one by one until he managed to gather enough money for a red packet after midnight.

These banknotes and coins filled Nathan with disgust. To him, they were both unusable and dirty, so he couldn’t understand why Sophia was so happy when she saw them.

However, this dirty stack of old banknotes would look adorable if it was Sophia who liked them.

Sigh, I can never understand what is going on in the adults’ minds, Nathan thought to himself.