A Replacement Bride

Chapter 38

"F*ck! Are you serious, Joaquin? I'm just saying. Do you have to get so riled up? You can't possibly have feelings for your fiancée and be jealous, right?"

After zoning out for a while, Ben finally entered the house. As he stepped inside, he stared at Joaquin, eyeing him up and down. It wasn't for long, though, because he quickly averted his gaze when Joaquin looked at him coldly. A chill ran down Ben's spine, making him feel like he was being watched by a predator.

Ben dared not to mess around anymore and quickly said, "Fine, forget what I said, okay? Let’s talk business. There has been progress in the medicine that you have been searching for. Someone on the Red Web has accepted our order and said the results would be within three months."

Hearing his words, Joaquin became serious as it was indeed an important thing. "Did you find out who accepted it?" he asked.

"Of course not. You know how the Red Web works. Moreover, with our ability, we can't possibly be able to find out the person's identity. Those who can get their hands on this medicine might be in one of those places. We can't afford to offend them." Ben shrugged, appearing to be helpless against this matter.

His reaction had Joaquin pursing his lips and going silent. He couldn't help but think about this matter.

"Joaquin, if we can get our hands on this, you will be able to recover from your injuries," Ben said while looking at him with a complex expression.

Four years ago, a severe accident had damaged Joaquin's pain receptors. For the past few years, they had searched for numerous specialists to heal him but to no avail. Just as they thought there was no

hope, things took a turn where they suddenly received information on how to heal him.

Joaquin twitched his lips and seemed to be mindless about it.

As they chatted for some time, Ben noticed that it was getting late and said his goodbyes. When he was about to leave, he couldn't help but glance at Katherine's room. Unfortunately, the door was shut tight, so he didn’t know whether any other men were inside her room.

…

In room 1801, Katherine wore a white T-shirt after taking a hot bath and sat in front of the computer desk. Then, she opened her computer, which started in a matter of seconds. She opened a red spider icon and a website popped up with several unread messages. However, she ignored it and went straight to her task list.

She had completed almost all the tasks she had recently and was left with only one that she accepted three days ago out of boredom.

The task was to get a type of neurotoxin that could stimulate a human being's nervous system and develop the brain. It was a rare toxin, but she had obtained it due to sheer coincidence and kept it ever since. Now, she decided to give it away since she was in need of money and the person who assigned the task had offered such a high price. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Staring at the person's profile picture for a while, she sent a message. 'Give me your address. I’ll send it to you in three days.'

The Red Web was an international trading platform that was similar to a black market. It was a mysterious place where almost everything could be bought from there: all kinds of information, medicines with peculiar effects, and rare medicine ingredients. It had everything one could ever imagine.

After sending the message, Katherine closed the webpage and opened some other documents on the computer, looking at the stock index of each market. As time passed by, she yawned and got ready to sleep.

On the other hand, Ben's phone rang as he entered the car, signaling that a message had arrived. He opened it and almost jumped up with joy when he saw the message icon.

Looking at the text, he couldn't help but feel shocked. "Three days? Holy sh*t, what kind of person are they?" he exclaimed.

The type of neurotoxin that he wanted was extremely rare. Only a kind of poisonous fish deep within five million meters of the ocean had it and each of these fish carried only one milligram of the toxin. Never did he expect that someone would have completed it so fast when he had requested one gram of it on the Red Web.

Suppressing his excitement, Ben replied with trembling fingers. 'The address is 1802, Block A, First Floor, Soulin International in Hovington, Trasea, Cechirus.' Then, he sent it along with a set of numbers. After that, he couldn't help but refresh the webpage repeatedly. To his dismay, there was no reply.

Realizing that he would need to wait until the next day, Ben felt disappointed for a moment before texting Joaquin to tell him about the good news.

It was a restless night for him.

The next day, the sun shone brightly and it was warm outside. Katherine woke up early and stretched before getting out of bed and washing up. Then, she sat in front of the computer desk and opened her computer out of habit. There was a small red dot on top of the red spider mark, signaling that there was a message. While eating a piece of bread, she clicked on it and saw that the person called Paperboy had given her an address and a phone number.

As she opened the conversation, she went silent after looking at the address. Never would she have thought that Joaquin, her neighbor aka fiancé, was the person who wanted to buy this neurotoxin.

Staring at the chat box in silence for a moment, she went back to her task list. Then, she canceled the task, returned the money she received, and blocked Paperboy. She did the whole thing without any hesitation and shut down her computer.

No matter what the reason Joaquin wants it is, a gram of toxin can wipe out half of the population of Northtride. It’s best if I don’t give him such a dangerous thing directly to avoid a disaster, Katherine thought.

Then, she walked out of the room while humming a tune with ease after changing into an outfit and wearing a cap. She had to go to Northtride University to take something.

Just as she opened the door, so did the room on the opposite side of her. Joaquin wore a set of black clothing and looked like a self-restrained person. As if he noticed her stare, he raised his head and their eyes met each other.

"Good morning, my fiancé." Katherine smiled and waved at him.

Although she had greeted Joaquin, he didn’t reply and averted his gaze. Then, he closed the door behind him and walked toward the elevator. Seeing that he had ignored her, Katherine didn’t say anything and trailed behind him leisurely while her hands in her pocket.

Soon, the elevator arrived and they both went inside. It was cramped inside and there was a scent of sandalwood in the air, which smelled refreshing. Leaning against the wall, Katherine eyed him up and down, noticing that he wasn’t in a wheelchair and was still wearing a silver mask on his face. As he was wearing a pair of pants that were in the same color as his shirt, Joaquin looked unruly like a gentleman.

Just as Katherine was mesmerized, she heard his voice beside her ears. "Are you done looking?" His voice was deep and cold; it was a mix of seductiveness and viciousness.

Hearing his question, Katherine straightened up. There was a flash of embarrassment on her face as she was caught red-handed by him for staring.