The Fake Heiress and Her Purrfect Partner novel Chapter 241

Chapter 241

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Claire’s face went ashen, her voice quivering as she urgently gave instructions to every department present at the celebration party.

“Everyone, get moving. Procurement, reach out to all our backup suppliers. Production, rearrange the schedule. Marketing, prepare a contingency plan,” she ordered.

Employees abandoned their bowls and forks, and the party hall was suddenly filled with the clatter of chairs and tables.

The gourmet dishes were still steaming hot, but nobody paid them any attention.

The lively celebration, filled with laughter just moments before, was instantly transformed into a chaotic overtime battlefield, phones ringing, heated discussions, and arguments breaking out all around.

“Did you get to the bottom of this? Why exactly did they lock down the mountain? And how long will the Celestial Algae supply be cut off?” Claire asked the assistant anxiously.

The assistant wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, “The Forestry Department isn’t saying much. All they’ll admit is that it’s the highest-level conservation lockdown.

“They did mention that if they don’t close Wild Goose Ridge right now, rare species like Celestial Algae and Peach Blossom Jellyfish could disappear for good any day now.”

“How could this happen suddenly?” Claire couldn’t believe it. “Celestial Algae is going extinct? Did something happen to the environment up there?”

The assistant looked lost, just as confused. “Our team was at the site last week, and the soil and water samples we brought back were totally normal.”

Nina just smiled to herself, still calmly eating as if nothing could faze her.

She’d only figured out the problem with the pond’s sediment ahead of time thanks to her network of animal informants.

Those little guys always picked up on the smallest changes in their surroundings before anyone else.

At first, the Forestry Department’s routine checks on the sediment came up empty.

It wasn’t until Nina handed over samples showing the strange illnesses popping up in the animals and pointed out how those symptoms were connected to something hidden in the muck that people finally started paying

attention.

The samples were reported layer by layer all the way up to the nation’s top biological research institute, where they finally detected evidence of a deeply hidden, highly specialized pathogen.

With the technical expertise of Claire’s business team, there was simply no way they could have uncovered something so advanced.

Just as everyone was scrambling to put out fires, the bad news started pouring in one after another.

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Chapter 241

“Ms. Summer, our warehouse only has enough inventory to cover 15% of the orders.”

“All the suppliers say they can’t deliver anything next quarter. They’re blaming the lockdown and the new forest protection rules.”

Bad news just kept piling up on Claire, and she felt like she was suffocating.

“Procurement,” Claire snapped. “I told you to buy up every last bit of Celestial Algae on the market. What did you find?”

A staffer from Procurement came running, sweat streaming down his face. “Ms. Summer, it’s bad. We reached out to every Celestial Algae supplier we could find, and their stock has all been cleaned out.”

Claire’s knees buckled, and she dropped into her chair, stunned.

That last bit of hope in Claire’s heart vanished with the bad news.

It felt like the sky was falling.

Summer Group always kept a small emergency stash of Celestial Algae, but they never went overboard stockpiling it.

Business was all about lean production.

The more raw materials you locked up in storage, the more cash you had stuck there doing nothing.

It wasn’t just the cost of buying the stuff. One had to pay for storage, keep an eye on it, hire people to watch over it, and if it sat too long, it could go bad. All of that added up to a hefty price tag.

No normal company would blow millions just to buy up every last bit of raw material on the market and stash it all away.

It was like betting the farm and hoping you wouldn’t lose everything.

Just to gamble on a one-in-a-hundred chance, something that probably wouldn’t ever happen.

And wouldn’t one know it, that one percent disaster is exactly what hit us.

No one could’ve imagined that Celestial Algae, that obscure little ingredient nobody ever worried about because there was always enough lying around, would just vanish overnight.

Claire’s voice shook uncontrollably. “This can’t be happening. How is it possible that there’s not a single bit left to buy?”

‘Who the hell managed to buy up every last bit of Celestial Algae on the market before anyone else even noticed?’ Claire wondered.

While everyone else was running around like chickens with their heads cut off, Nina was just sitting at her seat, cool as ever, totally unfazed by the chaos.

She was taking her sweet time, savoring the whole feast all by herself, locked in a fierce showdown with that

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Chapter 241

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king crab, like nothing else in the world even mattered.

Honestly, Claire really pulled out all the stops for this celebration. The spread was next-level, pure luxury; seriously, it was a feast fit for royalty.

The assistant handed Claire a glass of juice, her face serious as she broke it down. “Ms. Summer, first, Wild Goose Ridge gets suddenly locked down for forest conservation, and our supply gets cut off.

“Then, suddenly, every single bit of Celestial Algae on the market gets wiped out. Two things like this happening one after another? There’s no way that’s just a coincidence.

“This is straight-up a plot against our Celestial Dog Food.”

The others chimed in right away. “Yeah, someone’s definitely working behind the scenes, trying to screw us over.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Claire spotted Nina, who seemed completely unfazed by the chaos swirling around her.

Claire’s eyes narrowed, and she suddenly fixed her glare on Nina, who was calmly enjoying her meal, demanding, “Nina, is this your doing?

“You must’ve had a hand in this. Otherwise, why would Wild Goose Ridge get shut down suddenly for forest conservation?”

“If I really had that kind of power, why would I bother being a product consultant? Wouldn’t it be way more fun to just watch you go bankrupt?” Nina scoffed.

Nina let out a mocking laugh, her gaze sweeping over the room. “I steer clear of anything illegal, thanks.

“Only people from families full of outlaws would think everyone else is just like them.”

Claire was hit right where it hurt, so furious that her hand was shaking, but she was too stunned to even get a word out.

Nina calmly wiped her mouth with a napkin. “You were the one who pushed for Celestial Algae, and the R&D team just went along with it.

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