Chapter 158: Party and Umbrella (V)

Shiler heard from Cobblepot the entire process of how he climbed to become a small leader in the North District.

It had to be admitted that Cobblepot was a genius, especially in terms of power strategy. His plans were meticulous, his thinking was clear, his execution was strong, and his acting was also very good. He could always play the appropriate image at the appropriate time and then deceive everyone.

At Fish's time, he acted as if he were incompatible with those gang bosses who had invaded, just like a native who firmly defended his own territory.

But after jumping ship to Kevin's side, he began to tell of Fish's inhumanity, claiming that the gang bosses' act of grabbing territory was incomparably just, saving the citizens of the Slab from deep water and scorching fire.

Fish learned of his betrayal and was naturally very angry, but Cobblepot provided these gang bosses with an excuse for just plunder, so these bosses had to protect him, and they had to treat him as a model, holding him as high as possible to show that under their rule, even a cigarette-selling peddler who couldn't carry or lift anything could obtain status and power, to prove that Fish's rule over the Slab left people with no way out.

Cobblepot made himself a model example that these gang bosses wanted to set up. Not only did he get his chance to get ahead, but he also made the relationship between Fish and this group of bosses increasingly tense, almost on the verge of breaking out.

"And then? What else did you do? To make Kevin start to fear you?" Shiler asked Cobblepot. Before Cobblepot could answer, Shiler added, "In your previous version of the story, you said Kevin was worried you would seize his position, but there is a loophole here..."

"This group of gang bosses with one-track minds rarely fear a white-collar worker. Most of them feel that having a gun in hand is a threat, and you? Your body isn't strong enough, and you don't have armed forces. A traditional gang boss like Kevin who only looks at the size of fists won't fear you for no reason."

Cobblepot opened his mouth. He didn't answer Shiler's question directly, but asked him, "Compared to this, why do you know them so well?"

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

"Among the current gang bosses in the Slab, only one has no admission record. The other 5 have all been patients here, including that Kevin. I've seen him in the corridor..."

"Isn't this a mental hospital?" Cobblepot stared.

"Then do you think they don't have mental illness?"

Cobblepot took a breath. He found that he was speechless. What Shiler said made a lot of sense. In Cat Getan, if you don't have some mental illness, you still want to be a gang boss?

"Alright, I'll continue..."

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

"I began to win people's hearts in Kevin's gang. Using my calculation ability, the water fees I collected were always more than other places, but it made people unable to detect it. I used some petty gains to bribe bottom-level personnel to get convenience, earn more money, and then used even larger amounts of money to bribe quite a few middle and high-level personnel..."

"I didn't intend to make a move so early, but there was an idiot who didn't handle things strictly and let it slip when reporting to Kevin, letting him know that I had withheld quite a bit of extra water fees collected."

"Just like you said, this group of gang bosses doesn't care about people without guns, but they care about money."

"Knowing that I had embezzled water fees, Kevin was very angry. He threatened to kill me. It was several high-level personnel I had bribed who mediated, so he didn't explode immediately."

"But I knew I had to make a move in advance. Kevin wouldn't tolerate me for too long."

"It seems your experience isn't rich enough." Shiler summarized, "In Cat Getan, don't count on others. They can't accomplish anything; they only bring trouble."

"I understand this point now." Cobblepot snorted coldly.

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

"But that doesn't solve the problem."

Cobblepot's tone became a bit helpless. He said, "That place is a mud pit. Once I kill Kevin and take the position myself, such a big thing as a change of leader will make the gang very unstable."

"There are several wolves eyeing it around. Once something happens inside the gang, they will swarm up and divide the gang's territory."

"I can kill a Kevin with strategy, but I can't kill everyone. If I want to take the position while stabilizing the gang and deterring them, I must use external force."

"So you went back to Fish?"

"That's right. At that time, Fish could communicate. She wasn't that crazy yet. I repented to her and then proposed that I could help her work from the inside out."

"At this time, Fish was still very irritable, but her brain was still sober. She was moved by the possible benefits, so we began to cooperate."

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

His figure wandered between the Mooney Gang and other gangs. One second he was eloquently proposing various suggestions and plans to Fish, and the next second, he was dealing with Kevin.

Above the Slab, the still somewhat immature face of the Penguin appeared. He stretched out his hands, his fingers hanging several puppets with thin threads. He nimbly moved his fingers, making the puppets dance in this strange and weird building, looking like a thrilling party.

"Afterward, I found an excuse to lure Kevin out of the Slab. Fish killed him in an alley not far from the Slab." Cobblepot's voice sounded again.

"As we agreed, Fish made a commotion, dragging the other gang bosses away, while I used this gap to receive Kevin's territory."

"And then?" Shiler pushed his glasses and said to Cobblepot, "Kevin died, you received the territory, everything went very smoothly..."

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

"I can't withstand the recoil of any high-power firearm, so I can only use a handgun. I don't have any specialties in fighting, so I can't rely on force to eat."

"But Cat Getan's gangs rely on force to eat, especially these bottom-level gangs. Too many people don't accept my status. I have to endure Fish. I need to use her to get rid of those thorns."

"But she became crazier and crazier. She's crazy, do you understand?" Cobblepot looked at Shiler and said, "This woman completely lost her mind, becoming a monster who only knows how to abuse and beat others!"

"Then you just endure her abuse like this?"

"Of course not..." Cobblepot's facial muscles trembled, which made his expression look very fierce. He said, "It's better that she's 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 falls into the fear that everyone wants to harm her. Only I can communicate with her."

"I can let her kill anyone, just quietly telling her that that person betrayed her." Cobblepot let out a series of snickers.

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

Cobblepot's face was full of injuries, but he didn't have any expression of fear. Instead, he sneered and approached Fish's ear, reciting one name after another. Fish's arms began to tremble constantly. This crazy woman had been driven mad by the delusion of being harmed in her brain. She swore to kill everyone who betrayed her.

Gunshots rang out one after another. 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, his eyes full of crazy pride.

"But why did you change your strategy later?"

"I didn't lie." Cobblepot looked into Shiler's eyes and said, "Ma Luoni came to me, although I didn't know who he was at the time."

"He told me that before, he had hit several of the Godfather's industries and had become a mortal enemy with the Falcone family. He had already offended the Old Godfather. He couldn't let the Falcone family's plan to transform Cat Getan succeed, otherwise, the Ma Luoni family would cease to exist..."

"He asked me to cooperate with him. I didn't agree, so he kidnapped my mother, just a few days ago..."

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

"We formulated a plan together to kill Fish and frame Little Falcone."

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

"Of course not. How could I be that stupid."

"Ma Luoni?" Cobblepot snorted from his nose. He continued, "Did he think I would sincerely cooperate with him? Of course not. I saw that he was a shameless hyena."

"We formulated the plan, but besides that, I had my own set of plans."

"I think, next, it should be time to talk about you and your mother, right?"

"That's right."

The curtain was pulled open again. Accompanied by Cobblepot's narration, the perspective returned to the old Cobblepot house.

The thin and small Cobblepot was panting heavily, sitting paralyzed in the center of the living room, facing a mess.

And Mrs. Cobblepot was holding a chair, smashing it crazily toward the ground, muttering vaguely in her mouth.

Cobblepot took a rope, wanting to tie up his mother who had suddenly had an episode, but Mrs. Cobblepot pushed him to the ground. Cobblepot bumped into a table and let out a scream. Immediately after, Mrs. Cobblepot swung the chair and hit his right arm.

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

But he still struggled to climb up, knelt in place for a while, then stumbled into the room, took out sleeping pills, bypassed Mrs. Cobblepot who was smashing things in place, walked to the coffee table in the living room, threw the medicine into the water, and then hid in the corner to wait.

About a whole night passed, and Mrs. Cobblepot finally alleviated from that manic state. The fading of excitement brought exhaustion and hunger. She followed her instinct to find water to drink and drank that large pot of water with sleeping pills in one gulp.

Another few dozen minutes passed, until the medicine took effect and Mrs. Cobblepot lay paralyzed on the sofa and fell asleep. Only then did Cobblepot walk up and drag her away from the sofa.

Shiler covered his forehead, interrupting Cobblepot's narration. He said, "Clearly, your mother and you are both catatonic schizophrenia... Forget it, I can't expect you to have any knowledge in this regard."

"I can only say, you did almost nothing. Even if you didn't use sleeping pills, patients after the manic state would also fall asleep due to exhaustion."

Cobblepot suddenly became a bit neurotic, trying hard to raise his upper body, leaning on the pillow, looking at Shiler levelly, and then asked him, "Can this disease really be cured?"

"I said it could." Shiler paused, then added, "However, that's aimed at you, because your age is relatively young. If it's your mother..."

He shook his head and continued, "A full recovery is unlikely. It can only guarantee a normal life most of the time. Once an episode occurs, you still have to be hospitalized."

Cobblepot seemed to let out a sigh of relief. Before Shiler could continue to ask, he said, "As you expected, that really wasn't a kidnapping scene, or rather, I kidnapped my mother myself."

"This is part of my plan. I intend to send my mother away myself and then frame Ma Luoni."

"I saved quite a bit of money and rented a new apartment. Nothing from that old house needs to be taken away, 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 had no choice..."

Cobblepot gritted his teeth and said, "I didn't know what was wrong with her at all. Although she was occasionally unclear in the past, it was never as serious as this time."

"She was completely crazy, out of control, and even picked up a fruit knife to stab herself. I was afraid she would hurt herself, so I could only let her fall asleep and then forcibly take her into the new apartment."

"Why not send her to the hospital?"

"I didn't have time." Cobblepot said with a gloomy face, "My mother and I argued for a whole day, and she went crazy for another night. These times were originally used by me to set up the scene."

"The time I agreed with Ma Luoni had arrived. I had to go execute the plan. I didn't have time to clean up at home, and I didn't have time to deal with my arm. I could only rush over..."

"Alright, then why on earth did you make up a lie that Ma Luoni kidnapped your mother?"

"This is exactly my plan. I won't really cooperate with that hyena. Don't forget what my final goal is. I want to gain freedom."

"Then what exactly is your plan?"

Suddenly, Cobblepot's tone changed. He said, "Just a few days ago, I discovered that there was a weirdo acting in the Slab. Of course, I had heard his name before. He is called, Batman..."

*Tomato Novel* ===== CHAPTER 159 =====