Chapter 1632

"What on earth do you little bastards want to talk to me about? I'm telling you, I just left the Mayor's mansion not long ago. If you dare to do anything to me, the Mayor and my men will definitely call the police!"

The Penguin sat on the sofa, glaring fiercely at Red Robin and Nightwing opposite him.

Red Robin sat on the edge of the sofa, his forearms resting on his legs, his body leaning forward, using body language to express a sincere posture for communication.

"Mr. Cobblepot, please forgive our rudeness, but it is indeed because the situation is urgent that we had to invite you from the police station to here."

The Penguin still maintained that fierce expression, only his eyebrows twitched imperceptibly. He still used that cold and mocking tone and said, "Situation urgent? How? Did you argue with Batman again and run away from home? Want to beat me up so you can explain to Batman that you aren't his good little babies?"

A "click" sound came from Red Hood's hand as he assembled a pistol on the side, which startled the Penguin into a shiver. He tightly pursed his lips and looked at Red Robin, saying, "I have no interest in getting involved in those affairs of your Bat-family. I haven't committed any crimes recently either. Why did you come to find me instead of finding the Joker?"

"I'm afraid we must remind you, Mr. Cobblepot, that it was we who contacted the Cat Getan Municipal Administration and had them issue a certificate for your regular maintenance of the Bingshan Lounge building, otherwise you would probably still be at the police station right now."

"So what? I'll be out sooner or later. Do you really think that ridiculous fire safety law can stop me?"

"That's if we didn't intervene." Red Robin refused to give an inch. He smiled and said, "We all know that the Mayor and government officials are your guests of honor, so you definitely won't be sentenced in the end. But if there's a slight problem with the judicial trial procedure, and you are still dragged to a detention cell and locked up without bail, then I'm afraid we will let all the villains in Cat Getan know that the famous Penguin's first time in prison was because of failing fire safety measures."

"You……" The Penguin gritted his teeth and glared at Red Robin opposite him. A few seconds later, he turned his head away as if he had given in, sighed, and said, "Fine, this time I've fallen into your trap. I admit defeat. Don't mention any bullshit fire safety law. Tell me, what on earth do you want to do?"

"First, we want to know what on earth you are talking to the Mayor about."

The Penguin immediately became vigilant. He narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at Red Robin, and said, "This isn't something you should know! …… I won't beat around the bush with you either. What can you do even if you know these things? Do you want to smash the rice bowls of everyone in the city government, or do you want to make it impossible for people in this line of work to survive?"

"Tell me specifically."

"I know you have wiretaps on you, so don't expect me to reveal any details. Of course, I'm doing what I've always been doing. If you want to know, go back and ask your good daddy."

The Penguin didn't take the questioning of this group of little birds seriously at all. He thought this might be the Robins having another surge of justice, bringing wiretaps to trap him for evidence of his crimes.

He felt disdain in his heart. If the criminals in Cat Getan were so easily trapped into talking, they wouldn't have to be in the business anymore. This group of naive Robins was really not even a fraction as good as Batman.

"Then we won't beat around the bush with you either." Red Robin revealed a cold smile, looked at the Penguin, and said, "You have won over more than a dozen wealthy people in Cat Getan's construction and shipping industries, and bribed the Mayor and his staff team, hoping to pass the state legislature's approval through them to transform the existing Cat Getan docks into a modern, large-scale deep-water port. And the purpose of you doing this is to allow Cat Getan docks to dock more smuggling ships."

The Penguin opened his mouth, as if he had been choked, and made an "uh" sound from his throat. Then he stood up angrily, tapped the ground hard with the cane in his hand, looked at Red Robin, and said, "Kid, are you playing with me? Who of my men did you bribe? I will catch them and feed them to the dogs!"

Red Robin also stood up, his gaze fixed on the Penguin's eyes, and said, "Cobblepot, do you really think you've spent so many years in Cat Getan without leaving any evidence behind?"

"Hmph, bluffing. Do you think this can scare me?"

"The Bingshan Charity Foundation you established a year and a half ago in the name of reversing global warming and protecting marine ecology—the investment members happen to be big bosses in industries such as Cat Getan and even the East Coast's construction materials, shipping, offshore energy development, and heavy marine equipment. Is it really just a coincidence?"

"Could it be that this group of people finally realized after reaching the age of fifty that the ocean is being polluted and icebergs are melting, and then collectively awakened, pouring funds into your charity foundation, and this fund just happened to lose all its money within a year of the foundation launching venture capital, and they just happened to be merciful enough to completely forgive you, and even kept patronizing your Bingshan Lounge without holding a grudge?"

The bloated Penguin fell back onto the sofa behind him. He squeezed his cane hard, seemingly unwilling, but Red Robin being able to say these words proved that he had mastered the complete chain and had already seen what kind of ghost the Penguin was playing.

Even if they didn't have solid evidence, as long as they caused him some trouble along this chain, this business wouldn't be successful. If he didn't give in now, all the previous preparations would be wasted.

"Fine, fine! Kids, you've really grown up!" The Penguin sat in place and sighed, then raised his eyes to look at Red Robin and Nightwing, and looked through their shoulders at Red Hood, who was standing at the table assembling a pistol.

He shook his head with great emotion and said, "I remember a few years ago, that kid in black was just a little follower behind Batman's butt. Now you've come out to work on your own too. If I had a son, he would probably be as old as you are now."

"Are you willing to talk to us about the specific situation of this business now?"

"It's useless for me to talk to you." The Penguin shook his head, as if he had unspeakable difficulties, looked at Red Robin again, and seemed to be looking at others through Red Robin.

"Since you've decided to work on your own, it means you might have already discovered that there are too many truths in this world that can't be reasoned with Batman. He's just a lunatic."

"Everything I say to you now will become evidence for him to come over later, break my legs, and drag me into Arkham Asylum to be locked up. What can you do? What can I do?"

The Penguin stood his cane upright, supported his body on it with one hand, leaned forward, looked Red Robin in the eyes for the first time, and said.

"I'm just a businessman, but Cat Getan is no longer in an era for doing business. When old Falcone was still alive, he warned me, but I was still young at that time, and I didn't listen to him."

"To some extent, I crave the protection of rules more than you do, because if there are rules, I can use the rules. But there are no rules in Cat Getan now. Everyone is messing around. If I can't use more chaotic actions to suppress everyone, I can't keep my business."

"You killed the city government spokesperson, Ms. Vanke, didn't you?"

The Penguin relaxed his muscles again, put down his cane, leaned back on the back of the sofa, and said, "That woman sent by the federal government talked to us about Cat Getan's seabed structure and marine environmental protection. She said Cat Getan is not suitable for building a deep-water port, so she had to die."

"Because things have reached this point, you can't turn back either, right?"

"You're right, kid. The Bingshan Charity Foundation was initially established to collect funds from all sides, but that wasn't for any marine environmental protection. That was political contributions for the Mayor and state legislators, precisely to let them bypass federal marine environmental protection laws and help me win the approval for building a deep-water port."

"I'm not afraid of you hearing it……" The Penguin looked at Red Robin's chest, seemingly making eye contact with Batman behind the surveillance camera. This was also said for him to hear: "All the flows of funds are legal, and there won't be any problems with taxes either. It's too late for you to investigate now."

"Then did you get the approval?" Red Robin asked.

The Penguin's face sank. He made a cold snort from his nose and then said, "The funds I've provided over the years have whetted Magan's appetite. In my most recent negotiation with him, he hoped to master a completely independent smuggling route to maintain his absolute advantage in the next election."

The Penguin rolled his eyes, looked to the other side, and said, "But it's not surprising that he has such a sense of crisis. The new favorite in Cat Getan's elite circle, Lincoln March, is his most powerful competitor. Some people rumored that March has hooked up with Bruce Wei En, and the two of them once had a small gathering in the office of Wei En Enterprises Tower, and Wei En even encountered an assassin's assassination."

"It's hard to say whether Wei En Enterprises' full support will shake the current Mayor Magan's advantage in the next election. If that outsider named Lincoln becomes Mayor, this business of mine will be completely finished."

"But that Magan is really stupid. He can't see that this isn't something I can decide alone. If I told all the investors of the Bingshan Charity Foundation about the stupid request he made, he wouldn't live long. No one can snatch their meat from this group of smugglers."

When the Penguin looked at Red Robin again, he thought he would be troubled by the quite hidden twists and turns and complex interest entanglements. He thought he would be met with the Robins' shouting and yelling, crying out things like "assassinating the Mayor is evil."

But unexpectedly, Red Robin leaned his body further forward, completely crossing the midline of the distance with the Penguin. He looked at the Penguin's eyes with an almost aggressive gaze and said, "If the current Mayor Magan is too stupid, why not change to another one?"

"What did you say？？!"

The Penguin panicked first. He looked left and right, seemingly searching for the traces of monitors and wiretaps. He immediately sat up straight from the sofa, gritted his teeth, and looked at Red Robin with twitching facial muscles, saying, "Kid, do you fucking know what you're saying?"

"Isn't that what you've been doing all along?" Red Robin relaxed instead. He leaned back, rested one arm on the armrest, pulled his chin back, and looked at the Penguin from above his eyes, saying, "Manipulating elections, supporting interest groups, racking your brains to pave the way for your business."

"That's called political contributions." The Penguin gave a cold snort, but he clearly showed some nervousness. He swallowed his saliva and said, "I did influence the election results, but so what? It's as if Wei En Enterprises didn't do the same thing!"

"We didn't come to you to discuss this." Nightwing spoke for the first time. Red Robin followed up immediately. He stared at the Penguin's eyes with a focused gaze and said.

"You're right, there are no rules in Cat Getan now, and we want to change a method to establish rules for Cat Getan, but the first thing to do is to make the city government cooperate with us."

The Penguin slowly widened his eyes. He seemed to have heard the subtext of Red Robin's words.

"We need 'our own people' in the city government who have a say, and it's best if they are 'our own people' who have the most say."

"So, Mr. Oswald Cobblepot, are you interested in participating in the upcoming Cat Getan mayoral election?"