Chapter 154 Party and Umbrella (V)

Schiller heard from Cobblepot the whole process of how he climbed to the top of the North District.

It must be admitted that Cobblepot is a genius, especially in terms of power struggle. He has meticulous plans, clear thinking, strong execution, and good acting skills. He can always play the right role at the right time and deceive everyone.

When Fish was there, he acted as if he was irreconcilable with the invading gangsters, just like an aboriginal who firmly defended his territory.

But after switching to Kevin, he began to talk about Fish's cruelty, claiming that the gangsters' grabbing of territory was extremely just and saved the citizens of Hell from dire straits.

Fish was very angry when he learned of his betrayal, but Cobblepot provided an excuse for the gangsters to plunder justly. The gangsters had to protect him and treat him as a model. The higher they praised him, the better, to show that under their rule, even a cigarette vendor who couldn't carry anything on his shoulders or hands could gain status and rights, to prove that Fish's rule over the living hell left people with no way out.

Cobert made himself a typical role model for these gangsters, not only giving himself a chance to rise to prominence, but also making the relationship between Fish and these gangsters more and more tense, almost to the point of a war.

"Then what? What did you do? Make Kevin start to be afraid of you?" Schiller asked Cobblepot. Before Cobblepot answered, Schiller added: "In your previous version of the story, you said that Kevin was worried that you would take his position, but there is a loophole here..."

"These gangsters with a single-minded mind rarely fear a civilian staff member. Most of them think that they are threatening only when they have a gun in their hands. And you? You are not strong enough and have no armed forces. Kevin, a traditional gangster who only looks at the size of his fist, will not be afraid of you for no reason."

Cobblepot opened his mouth. He did not answer Schiller's question directly, but asked him: "Compared to this, why do you know them so well?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you..." Schiller turned around and picked up a notebook from the table behind him. He flipped through it and said, "Let me see..."

"Among the gangsters in the living hell, only one has no hospitalization record. The other five were once patients here, including Kevin, I saw him in the corridor..."

"Isn't this a mental hospital?" Cobblepot said with his eyes squinting.

"Then do you think they are not mentally ill?"

Cobblepot took a breath and found himself speechless. Schiller's words made sense. In Gotham, if you are not mentally ill, you still want to be a gangster boss?

"Okay, let me continue..."

"From the beginning, my goal was to accumulate capital, because even if I got rid of the control of the Godfather, I couldn't go back to the streets, right? I can't build a gang from scratch, so I can only steal a ready-made one..."

"I started to win over the hearts of people in Kevin's gang. Using my calculation ability, I always collected more water bills than other places, but people couldn't detect it. I used some petty profits to bribe the lower-level personnel, get convenience, make more money, and then bribed a lot of middle and high-level people with a higher price..."

"I didn't want to start so early, but there was a fool who didn't do things carefully. He let it slip when reporting to Kevin, making him I know that I have intercepted a lot of extra water fees."

"As you said, these gangsters don't care about people without guns, but they care about money."

"Knowing that I embezzled water fees, Kevin was very angry. He threatened to kill me. It was a few high-level people who were bribed by me that prevented him from exploding immediately."

"But I know that I have to take action in advance. Kevin won't tolerate me for too long."

"It seems that you are not experienced enough." Schiller concluded: "In Gotham, don't count on others. They can't do anything and will only bring trouble."

"I understand this now." Cobblepot snorted.

"But even so, you don't have to go back to Fish's team. Can't you kill Kevin yourself? You should have plenty of opportunities."

"But that doesn't solve the problem."

Cobert's tone became a little helpless. He said, "It's a quagmire there. Once I kill Kevin and take over myself, such a big change of leader will make the gang very unstable."

"There are several wolves watching around. Once something happens inside the gang, they will rush in and divide up the territory of this gang."

"I can kill Kevin with a clever trick, but it's impossible to kill everyone. In order to stabilize the gang and intimidate them while taking the top position, I had to rely on external forces. "

"So you went back to Fish?"

"Yes, Fish could communicate at that time, she was not that crazy yet, I confessed to her, and then offered to help her with external cooperation."

"At this time, Fish was still very irritable, but her mind was still clear. She was moved by the possible benefits, so we started to cooperate."

In this scene, the initial light came from the mirror. In the mirror, Cobblepot put on a brand new suit and tie, becoming more like the gang leaders in Gotham.

His figure wandered among the Muni Gang and other gangs. One second he was still talking endlessly about various suggestions and plans to Fish, and the next second he was pretending to be friendly with Kevin.

Above the living hell, the Penguin's still somewhat immature face appeared. He stretched out his hand, and several puppets were hung on his fingers with thin lines. The moving fingers of his soul made the puppets dance in this weird and strange building, just like a horror party.

"After that, I found an excuse to lead Kevin out of the living hell, and Fish killed him in an alley not far from the living hell." Cobblepot's voice sounded again.

"As we agreed, Fish made a fuss and held up the bosses of several other gangs, and I took advantage of this gap to take over Kevin's territory."

"What happened next?" Schiller pushed his glasses and said to Cobblepot: "Kevin died, you took over the territory, and everything went smoothly..."

Cobblepot shook his head and said: "That's not the case at all."

"I can't withstand the recoil of any high-powered firearms, so I can only use a pistol. I don't have any special skills in fighting, and I can't make a living by force."

"But Gotham's gangs rely on force to make a living, especially these low-level gangs. Too many people are dissatisfied with my status. I have to endure Fish. I need her to get rid of those troublemakers."

"But She is getting more and more crazy, she is crazy, do you understand? "Copperpot looked at Schiller and said: "This woman has completely lost her mind and turned into a monster who can only abuse and beat others!"

"Then you just endure her abuse?"

"Of course not..." Copperpot's facial muscles trembled a little, which made his expression look very fierce. He said: "It's better for her to be crazy. Without a brain, she can only be controlled by me."

"She keeps beating me, but it doesn't matter. When she goes crazy, she will fall into fear that everyone wants to hurt her, and only I can communicate with her."

"I can let her kill anyone, just tell her quietly that the person betrayed her." Copperpot let out a series of snickers.

In the center of the stage, Fish sat on a crate, her eyes were full of red bloodshot, her lips were chapped, and the whole person was like a stiff puppet.

Cobblepot's face was covered with wounds, but he showed no fear. Instead, he sneered and approached Fish's ear, reading out names one after another. Fish's arms began to tremble constantly. This crazy woman had been driven crazy by the delusion of being murdered in her mind. She vowed to kill all those who betrayed her.

Gunshots rang out one after another, and one black shadow after another fell at Cobblepot's feet. Blood flowed to his feet. He reached out to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, raised his head, and his eyes were full of crazy pride.

"But why did you change your strategy later?"

"I didn't lie." Cobblepot looked into Schiller's eyes and said, "Maroni came to me, even though I didn't know who he was at the time."

"He told me that before, he had attacked several of the Godfather's businesses and had become sworn enemies with the Falcone family. He didn't want to see the Falcone family transform Gotham, so he wanted to sabotage the first step of the reform."

"He knew that I was controlling the North District's water system, so he found me and hoped that I would poison the water source of the living hell."

Cobblepot's tone began to become colder and colder: "At that time, Fish had already gone crazy, and she was almost useless."

"We worked out a plan together to kill Fish and frame her. Little Falcone."

"This is illogical." Schiller asked Cobblepot: "Your goal is not to be controlled by the Godfather, not to offend the Godfather. Don't tell me that you think you can defeat the Godfather and gain freedom in this way."

"Of course not, how could I be so stupid."

"Maroni?" Cobblepot snorted coldly from his nose, and then said: "Does he think I will cooperate with him sincerely? Of course not, I see that he is a shameless hyena."

"We have made a plan, but in addition to this, I have my own plan."

"I think, next, we have to talk about you and your mother, right?"

"That's right."

The curtain opened again, and with Cobblepot's narration, the perspective returned to the old house of Cobblepot's family.

The thin Cobblepot was panting, slumped in the middle of the living room, facing the mess.

And Mrs. Cobblepot was holding a chair, smashing it to the ground madly, mumbling incoherently.

Cobblepot took a rope and wanted to tie up his mother who suddenly fell ill, but Mrs. Cobblepot pushed him to the ground. Cobblepot hit the table and screamed. Then, Mrs. Cobblepot swung a chair and hit his right arm.

Cobblepot rolled on the ground and knocked over the cabinet, and the items scattered on the ground.

But he still struggled to get up, half-knelt there to think for a while, then staggered into the room, took out the sleeping pills, walked around Mrs. Cobblepot who was smashing things, walked to the coffee table in the living room, threw the pills into the water, and then hid in the corner and waited.

After about a whole night, Mrs. Copperbot finally relaxed from the state of excitement. The fading of excitement made her tired and thirsty. She followed her instinct to find water to drink and drank the big pot of water with sleeping pills.

After dozens of minutes, until the drug took effect, Mrs. Copperbot collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep, Copperbot walked up and dragged her away from the sofa.

Schiller covered his forehead and interrupted Copperbot's story. He said: "Obviously, your mother is like you, both of them are catatonic schizophrenia... Forget it, I can't expect you to have any knowledge in this area."

"I can only say that you have done almost nothing. Even if you don't use sleeping pills, the patient will fall asleep due to exhaustion after the excitement state passes."

Copperbot suddenly became a little neurotic. He tried to lift his upper body, leaned on the pillow, looked at Schiller at eye level, and asked him: "Can this disease really be cured?"

"I said it can be cured." Schiller paused, then added: "But that's for you, because Because you are relatively young, if it was your mother...”

He shook his head and continued: “It is unlikely to be completely cured. You can only live a normal life most of the time. Once the disease occurs, you still have to be hospitalized.”

Cobolt seemed to be relieved. Before Schiller continued to ask, he said: “As you expected, it was indeed not a kidnapping scene, or I kidnapped my mother myself.”

“This is part of my plan. I plan to send my mother away myself and then put the blame on Maroni.”

“I saved a lot of money and rented a new apartment. I don’t need to take anything away from the old house, but my mother just won’t leave...”

"We had an argument, she became more and more excited, and then she started to go crazy, I couldn't do anything..."

Capote gritted his teeth and said, "I don't know what's wrong with her. Although she was occasionally unconscious before, it was never as serious as this time."

"She was completely crazy and out of control. She even stabbed herself with a fruit knife. I was afraid that she would hurt herself, so I had to let her fall asleep and then forcibly take her to the new apartment."

"Why didn't you send her to the hospital?"

"I don't have time." Capote said with a gloomy face: "I argued with my mother all day, and she went crazy all night. I used this time to set up the scene."

"The time agreed upon by Maroni has come. I have to go to carry out the plan. I haven't had time to clean up my house, and I don't have time to take care of my arm, so I can only rush there..."

"Okay, then why did you make up a lie that Maroni kidnapped your mother?"

"This is exactly my plan. I won't really cooperate with that hyena. Don't forget what my ultimate goal is. I want to be free."

"So what is your plan?"

Suddenly, Cobblepot changed the subject and said, "Just a few days ago, I found that there was a weirdo in the living hell. Of course, I had heard of his name before. His name is Batman..."