A Replacement Bride

Chapter 371

"Tell those mercenaries to stop. There's no need to look for them anymore because they're here with me," he ordered in a deep voice.

On the other end of the phone, his assistant, Hansel, responded, "All right. Then, do we need to send them back to X Research Institute?"

Jayden didn't answer immediately. He thought for a while before replying, "Send back some of them and have the rest continue monitoring them. Have them show their faces from time to time. Don't withdraw fully, otherwise, they'll be suspicious."

After hanging up the phone, he stood on the balcony, looking at the scenery in the courtyard of the villa, his eyes slightly narrowed with interest.

Heh, Katherine surprises me all the time. She actually knows how to disguise herself. If I hadn't arranged everything in advance, I would almost have been fooled by her. They're now saying that they're going to Zoscistan by private jet. I'm afraid it's not as simple as they make it out to be! I want to see what they're really up to!

…

Meanwhile, Katherine showered, washed off the dust, and then sat by the bed, meditating on what happened today. After a while, Joaquin joined her.

"What are you thinking?" he leaned over, sat next to her, and asked. The scent of the shower gel on his body was very pleasant.

Sniffing, Katherine couldn't help clinging to him before replying slowly, "I'm thinking about today's affairs, and the more I think about it, the more something feels wrong."

This action of hers did not escape Joaquin's gaze. The man smiled, then threw the towel on the back of the chair before dragging Katherine to lie down.

Startled, Katherine struggled quickly. "Hey, what are you doing? I'm talking about serious matters here. You…"

Joaquin raised his eyebrows, leaned back lazily on the bed, and pulled her toward him without releasing his grip. Katherine fell into his arms all at once, and her smooth forehead hit his muscular and hard chest, causing some pain.

Hissing in pain, she rubbed her forehead and mumbled, "What are you doing?"

Joaquin turned sideways, held her before him, and put a hand behind her ear. Smiling, he said, "What's going on in your mind? What did you think I was going to do?"

Katherine's expression froze, then she muttered wryly, "N-Nothing." Original from NôvelDrama.Org.

Nevertheless, Joaquin didn't let her go and teased her on purpose, "You enjoyed the scent of my body just now, didn't you? Go on then. I'm a generous person. You can smell me as much as you want."

Katherine was speechless. This jerk goes crazy at any time!

She glared at him in annoyance and tried to get up while holding onto his chest. But her glare looked like a flirtatious stare to Joaquin, which made him even happier. He grabbed her slender waist tightly, unable to let her go.

"Hey, you're really…" Katherine couldn't move away, so her face went red with shame. Joaquin stopped teasing her and let go of her waist. He put his warm palm on her back and carefully supported her,

afraid she would turn over and fall. Then, his expression became serious.

"Okay, I won't tease you anymore. Tell me, what do you think about this matter?"

Seeing him bring up the serious matter, Katherine curled her lips, leaned against his arms, and started talking without any further struggle.

"Why do you think the other party didn't want to hijack the plane but simply wanted us to make an emergency landing in Fontan?" she asked first.

Joaquin narrowed his eyes slightly, pondered for a while, and quickly came up with his own answer.

"Forcing us to make an emergency landing in Fontan and then ambushing us when we arrive? That shows that the enemy's sphere of influence is concentrated in Fontan."

This was an obvious possibility, so Katherine nodded.

"But I thought about it for a while, and I couldn't think of any rivals in Fontan. Besides, the other party started the attack in Hovington, so he is a Cechirusian. Most importantly, he knows me well, but I can't think of a suitable candidate who ticks all the boxes. I don't recall having such an enemy."

She frowned and pondered for a long time but couldn't think of anything.

However, when Joaquin heard her words, his eyes flashed, and a figure suddenly appeared in his mind. However, he didn't speak up right away. He understood Katherine's personality and knew that she didn't like people who were paranoid. Most of all, she didn't like to be suspicious of her friends, so she didn't think about this possibility. Therefore, before there was sure evidence, he would not talk nonsense. He thereafter asked, "Do you have any opponents in Fontan? Not personal rivals, but business rivals."

"Business?" Katherine froze. "Do you mean the laboratory?"

Joaquin nodded. "The LW Laboratory has a huge reputation. Although your identity has not been disclosed to the public, there is no guarantee that someone interested wouldn't find out. Other laboratories might have already targeted you."

Hearing this, Katherine contemplated it for a while, then seemed to think of something and said in a low voice, "It is true that several laboratories have targeted LW Laboratory before, but those weren't very serious issues. However, there is one laboratory that proposed to acquire our laboratory a few years ago, but we couldn’t reach an agreement. So, they then asked for collaboration instead and wanted to jointly develop new reagents, but I rejected them. After that, that laboratory seemed to vanish, but in the past two years, someone came forward again and said there is a good project in hand that they wanted to jointly develop with LW Laboratory. They earnestly wanted us to share resources with them, but I also rejected them then."

With the strength and influence of LW Laboratory, they could get any project they wanted. Moreover, the LW Laboratory did not need any new projects at all, let alone collaborate with others. The reagents developed by them alone were enough to set off waves around the world. Therefore, no amount of temptation would move Katherine.

Joaquin felt inexplicably proud of this, but the more he listened, the more he felt that something was off.

"What's the name of that laboratory?" he asked abruptly.

Katherine searched in her mind and replied, "Lab X. It used to have a large sphere of influence in Fontan, but for some reason, it suddenly seemed to keep a low profile, and I haven't heard anything about them. There had been no movement until two years ago when the person in charge suddenly approached Dylan. Dylan was taken aback and thought that the person was a scammer, but the other party proved his identity, so Dylan believed it. But in the end, we didn’t have an agreement. At that

time, because of this matter, they were very unhappy with us, and Lab X even threatened to ruin us in the market."

Speaking of this, she sneered, "They speak boldly, but whether they have this ability is open to discussion. Anyway, until now, I haven't seen any movement from Lab X."

"Lab X?"

The moment Joaquin heard her mention the name, his face changed suddenly and astonishment came to his eyes. "Are you sure it's Lab X?"