Chapter 1072: Lin Sanjiu, Knowledgeable and Resourceful

At a critical moment, Bohemia acted swiftly. She didn"t wait for the Sandwich Secretary to finish speaking; suddenly, she pushed the table in front of her and, as a few tables and chairs fell towards him, she turned and ran towards the door.

As soon as she moved, it felt like a poisonous fire surged in her lungs, twisting and burning her insides. She hadn"t run a few steps when Bohemia"s legs gave way, and she fell to the ground. The Descartes Spirit, at times like this, could do nothing to help; his only role was to be annoyingly encouraging, "Quick, get up, you can do it! Oh, he"s coming at you!"

Bohemia was out of breath and struggled even to turn her head. She could only give a half-hearted kick backward, inadvertently hitting the Sandwich Secretary in the face. He let out a painful cry, his anger flaring as he grabbed her ankle. She had never thought an ordinary person could move so fast, catching her off guard.

"I didn"t want to do this, and it might raise suspicions afterward," the secretary said, his fair face flushed with excitement, his eyes wide and bulging, "But during your sudden illness, you fell and hit your head. That"s normal, right?"

While speaking, he firmly grabbed Bohemia"s long hair at the back of her head and pulled her forcefully into the air. If he were to keep pulling and slam her to the ground like this, she might lose consciousness.

Although her physical strength had dropped to that of an ordinary woman, Bohemia"s combat awareness, reflexes, and understanding of combat were on a completely different level from the Sandwich Secretary"s. The moment she was lifted, she immediately lifted her upper body and forcefully thrust her elbow backward, hitting him in the chest just below his throat.

Even though her strength was weak, the precise hit in the stomach and solar plexus still caused the Sandwich Secretary to curl up in pain and involuntarily release his grip. As soon as Bohemia had a moment to catch her breath, a surge of energy welled up from within her, and she used both her hands and feet to continue crawling toward the door. When she shook off Sandwich Secretary"s hand for the second time, she couldn"t help but unconsciously sniff.

This smell reminded her of the swimming pool in Exodus.

Not just the swimming pool, a similar smell often permeated the medical room. Whenever Lin Sanjiu needed to remove stains like blood on the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, she used this...

It was disinfectant!

Bohemia"s heart skipped a beat, but she didn"t have time to think it through as the smell of disinfectant once again engulfed her from behind. Along with the scent, there was also a chair clutched in the hands of Sandwich Secretary that fell onto her back.

A m.u.f.fled thud of wood striking flesh made Bohemia"s vision darken, but instead of pa.s.sing out, it only fueled her anger. "Go to h.e.l.l!" she exclaimed.

"It"s truly surprising, you"re more resilient than you look," the Sandwich Secretary said as if in admiration. He knelt down again and lifted the chair high.

She had been forced into such a dire situation, and she felt like she was at rock bottom after encountering Lin Sanjiu. Now, she had to rely on luck. Bohemia grabbed the edge of the meeting room door and, with her almost torn voice, yelled into the empty corridor, "Help!"

"Is there anyone outside?" the Sandwich Secretary asked, still catching his breath and laughing. He brought the chair down heavily this time. Bohemia twisted and dodged quickly, getting hit on the thigh this time, which hurt intensely but wasn"t enough to make her lose consciousness.

"Wenda!" She remembered that the name of that mechanic guy was something like that. She yelled again, loudly, "Wenda, I can see you, come quickly!"

Sandwich Secretary was taken aback and involuntarily looked towards the corridor. Bohemia seized the opportunity and kicked him off, making her way towards the door like a startled otter. She stumbled and used her hands and feet to crawl and run a few steps. However, she was suddenly tackled from behind by the secretary, causing her to fall to the ground with a painful thud.

The smell of disinfectant grew even more pungent.

The secretary straddled her back, pinning her down and chuckled between labored breaths. "I really like you."

Too bad your mother never liked you from the start, Bohemia thought as a string of curses flashed through her mind. Unfortunately, her face was pressed against the ground, and she couldn"t utter a single word. The Descartes Spirit floated over from behind and called out, "Hey, look!"

Can I really see? Bohemia was about to curse in her mind, but then a series of footsteps rushed into the hall. The approaching person seemed taken aback by the scene before them and halted abruptly. After half a second, they shouted, "What... what are you doing?"

She hadn"t guessed wrong; the janitor guy was nearby, and he had finally arrived!

"Hurry, save me!" Bohemia broke free from the hand clutching the back of her head and rasped urgently. The janitor suddenly came to his senses and rushed forward. He was much stronger than the office-bound Sandwich Secretary, easily flipping him to the ground, pinning his hands back, and demanding, "Why did you attack Miss Winters?"

Bohemia coughed as she crawled a bit further, leaning against the wall, her hands shockingly pale, almost resembling Puppeteer. The Sandwich Secretary, like a fish out of water, continued to struggle and curse under Wenda"s grip but refused to answer why he had attacked the warden. Bohemia, regaining her senses, quickly hummed through her nose and hoa.r.s.ely said, "He colluded inside and allowed outsiders to enter the prison to kill Hersin. When I found out, he wanted to silence me!"

The Descartes Spirit floated up and gazed at Bohemia for a moment. "Who are you?" it mumbled, "You have the potential to be a villain, blaming and framing others so easily..."

Of course! Bohemia knew that this reason would surely convince Wenda, as he was the one who had secretly investigated Sandwich Secretary"s office that night. According to the Descartes Spirit"s a.n.a.lysis, the only thing of interest on the Sandwich Secretary was the incident of colluding with Detective Gell to kill a prisoner. It was just too quick for someone to become suspicious and begin an investigation on something that had happened in the afternoon, especially since no official organization would react so swiftly. The only logical explanation was that someone privately harbored suspicions about Sandwich Secretary.

This person had to be involved in the prisoner"s death, and it was only due to their proximity that they had discovered the secretary"s suspicious behavior. Thinking about it, apart from Wenda, who sent Detective Gell to the medical department, there was hardly anyone else who made sense.

"She"s spewing nothing but lies!" Sandwich Secretary"s face turned tomato-red. "She"s aware of everything, she"s not the person she appears to be!"

Wenda cast a doubtful glance at Bohemia, who widened her eyes, appearing more innocent and indignant than Sandwich Secretary. "He"s just babbling!"

"Let go of me, you freak," the Sandwich Secretary, seeing that Wenda had completely bought into Bohemia"s act, was infuriated and scared. "What are you pretending to be a hero for? Have you forgotten how you usually take the opportunity to abuse the prisoners in the women"s prison?"

So, those few black strands of hair had been tucked into Wenda"s work overall pocket?

"I feel like the most normal person in this prison is the prisoners," The Descartes Spirit muttered.

Wenda, clearly having his secrets exposed, immediately became furious and embarra.s.sed, landing a punch on Sandwich Secretary"s neck from behind. "Shut up and behave!" The blow left the Sandwich Secretary with his eyes rolling back, unable to utter a word. Wenda looked around, grabbed the secretary by his collar, and began pulling him towards the meeting room while addressing Bohemia, "Miss Winters, you don"t need to worry. I"ll lock this guy up for now, and you can deal with him later."

Bohemia nodded, feeling like a burning fire in her throat.

Seeing Sandwich Secretary struggling and being dragged into the meeting room by the janitor, she finally let out a sigh of relief, slumping against the wall. Just a little longer, and this wretched game would be over. The morning sunlight streamed through the first-floor lobby, illuminating the suspended dust particles in the air. She stared at the dust, which danced like golden specks, then suddenly raised her hand and pointed to a white machine in the corner of the ceiling, asking, "What"s that?"

The white machine quickly blurred into a mosaic. After a while, the Descartes Spirit descended again and reported, "Hmm, the label on the device says "Ultrasonic Aromatherapy Humidifier"... and it"s not just this one; I checked, and there are others in the other rooms too."

Aromatherapy?

People from before the apocalypse did indeed sometimes have too much time on their hands and a mult.i.tude of preferences. Bohemia furrowed her brow, searching her limited knowledge of pre-apocalyptic society for a moment, and then suddenly remembered. "Ah!"

"You startled me!"

"I know how the secretary poisoned me — Lin Sanjiu mentioned it!" Bohemia"s eyes brightened. "Once, she asked me to help sprinkle disinfectant, but I didn"t feel like moving, so I suggested using the Special Item to spray it in the room. At that time, she told me! She said, if a disinfectant is nebulized into the room using some kind of ultrasonic device, inhaling it into the lungs can be fatal—"

The Descartes Spirit sighed.

"Ultrasonic," its tone was quite low, "and fatal pneumonia. Yes, you"re right... I just don"t understand why you, with your limited knowledge, realized it before I did, someone who already knew about it."

"It"s simple," Bohemia had an irrefutable reason. "Because you don"t have a nose, so you can"t smell the disinfectant."

The Descartes Spirit had nothing more to say and cleared its "throat" with a cough. "You"ve revealed the method of murder, but the onion is unpeeled, which means your guess was correct. The Sandwich Secretary went to great lengths to kill you, and these two items are quite ordinary. Who would think something was amiss? Even if you had died, people would probably have mistaken it for a sudden illness."

Bohemia nodded and suddenly looked up at the meeting room.

"Hey," she raised an eyebrow, casting a doubtful glance at the half-open door of the meeting room. "Why hasn"t Wenda come out yet?"