Chapter 153: Party and Umbrella (Part Five)_2

Over the Living Hell, the slightly immature face of the Penguin Man has appeared. He stretched out his hand with several puppets hanging on a thin line from his fingers. The movement of his spirit-filled fingers made the puppets dance in this peculiar and eerie architecture, very much like a terrifying party.

"Later, I made up an excuse and lured Kevin out of the Living Hell. Fish killed him in an alley not far from there," the voice of Cobblepot again resounded.

"As we agreed, Fish stirred up the scene, tying up the bosses of other mobs, while I took advantage of this gap to take over Kevin's turf."

"What happened then?" Shiller adjusted his glasses and said to Cobblepot, "Kevin is dead, you took over his turf, everything went smoothly..."

Cobblepot shook his head, "Nothing could be further from the truth."

"I can't handle the recoil of any high-powered firearms, I can only use a handgun. I have no special talents in fighting, I can't survive by force alone."

"But the mobs in Gotham have always survived by force, especially these lower level gangs. Too many people refuse to acknowledge my position, so I have to put up with Fish. I need her to get rid of those troublemakers."

"But she became crazier and crazier, she went mad, do you understand?" Cobblepot looked at Shiller, "This woman completely lost her mind and became a monster who only knows how to inflict torture and beat others!"

"So you just have to put up with her abuse?"

"Of course not..." Cobblepot's facial muscles trembled slightly, making him look extremely sinister. "Her madness is even better. Without brains, she can only be manipulated by me."

"She keeps on beating me, but it's fine. Once she has released her madness, she will be engulfed by paranoia that everyone wants to harm her. I am the only one she can communicate with."

"I can make her kill anyone. All I have to do is quietly tell her that person betrayed her." Cobblepot sneered continuously.

In the center of the stage, Fish sat on a wooden crate, her eyes full of bloodshot veins, lips cracked, her whole person like a rigid puppet.

Cobblepot's face was full of wounds, but there was no fear in his expression. He approached Fish's ear with a cold smile and whispered name after name. Fish's arm began to tremble continuously. This madwoman had been driven mad by the paranoia in her head. She vowed to kill everyone who betrayed her.

The sound of gunfire continued, one after another. Shadows fell at Cobblepot's feet, blood flowing to his soles. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, lifted his head, his eyes filled with crazy satisfaction.

"But why did you change your strategy afterwards?"

"I didn't lie." Cobblepot looked into Shiller's eyes, "Maroni found me, even though I didn't know who he was at the time."

"He told me that before this, he had attacked a few of the godfather's properties and made an enemy of the Falcone Family; he didn't want to see the Falcone Family reform Gotham, so he wanted to sabotage the first step of the reform."

"He knew that I was controlling the tap water system in the North District, so he found me and hoped that I would poison the water source in Living Hell."

Cobblepot's tone became colder and colder, "At that time, Fish had already started to go crazy, she was running out of usefulness."

"We made a plan together: kill Fish and frame it on young Falcone."

"That doesn't make sense." Shiller asked Cobblepot, "Your goal is to be free from the control of the godfather, not to provoke him. Don't tell me you thought you could overthrow the godfather and gain freedom by doing this."

"Of course not, I'm not that stupid."

"Maroni?" Cobblepot snorted coldly from his nose. He continued, "Did he think I'd really cooperate with him? Of course not, I saw through him - he's nothing but a shameless hyena."

"We made a plan, but beyond that, I had my own set of plans."

"I guess, next, it's time to talk about you and your mother's matters, right?"

"Yes."

The curtain lifts again, and with Cobblepot's narration, the view returns to the old mansion of the Cobblepot family.

A skinny Cobblepot is panting heavily, slumped in the center of the living room, facing a scene of utter chaos.

Madam Cobblepot is holding a chair, wildly smashing it into the floor while muttering unintelligibly.

Cobblepot tries to tie up his suddenly ill mother with a rope, but Madam Cobblepot easily pushes him to the ground. Cobblepot crashes into a table, releasing a painful scream. Immediately after, Madam Cobblepot swings the chair and hits his right arm.

Cobblepot rolls around on the ground, knocking over a cabinet and scattering its contents.

Nevertheless, he struggles to his feet and thinks for a moment while half-kneeling. He stumbles into the room, fetches some sleeping pills, dodges his mother who is continuing her rampage, walks over to the living room coffee table, drops the medicine into the water, and then hides in a corner to wait.

The entire night passes until Madam Cobblepot finally recovers from her frenzied state. The exhaustion and thirst brought on by the subsiding excitement cause her to instinctively seek water, and she consumes the entire jug of water laced with sleeping pills.

After several more minutes pass and the medicine takes effect, Madam Cobblepot collapses asleep on the sofa. Only then does Cobblepot approach and drag her off the sofa.

Shiller covers his forehead and interrupts Cobblepot's account, saying, "Clearly, your mother, like you, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia… Never mind. I can't expect you to understand this."

"I can only say that what you did was essentially pointless. Even without sleeping pills, a patient will pass out due to exhaustion after their manic episode is over."

Cobblepot suddenly becomes neurotic and strains to prop himself up on the pillows, leveling his gaze with Shiller and asking, "Can this disease really be cured?"

"I said it can be," Shiller replies, pausing for a moment before adding, "But that's for you. Due to your young age, if it's your mother…"

He shakes his head and continues, "A full recovery is unlikely. She can only hope to maintain a normal life most of the time, but she still has to be hospitalized during episodes."

Looking like a weight has been lifted, Cobblepot doesn't wait for Shiller to continue and says, "As you guessed, that wasn't a kidnapping scene. Or rather, it was—I kidnapped my own mother."

"This was part of my plan. My intention was to send my mother somewhere myself and pin the blame on Maroni."

"I saved quite a bit of money and rented a new apartment. We didn't need to take anything from the old house, but my mother refused to leave…"

"A fight broke out between us, getting her increasingly agitated and eventually she spiraled into madness. I was left without any options…"

Cobblepot tightly clenches his teeth and says, "I had no idea what was wrong with her. She used to have bouts of confusion occasionally, but it never got as severe as this."

"She completely lost control and even tried to stab herself with a kitchen knife. I feared she would hurt herself, so I had no choice but to drug her into sleep and forcefully move her to the new apartment."

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

"I didn't have the time," Cobblepot says, his expression grim. "My mother and I argued for an entire day, and she was in a manic state all night. I was supposed to have used this time to prepare the scene."

"The agreed time with Maroni came, so I had to execute my plan. I didn't have time to tidy up at home or treat my arm. I had to rush off…"

"Alright, so why exactly did you fabricate the lie that Maroni kidnapped your mother?"

"That was precisely my plan. I never intended to really cooperate with that weasel. Don't forget my ultimate goal—I wanted to gain freedom."

"So what was your plan?"

Suddenly, Cobblepot's tone changes and he says, "Just a few days ago, I noticed an unusual figure operating in Living Hell. Of course, I'd heard of him before. He's called… Batman."