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Chapter 153: Party and Umbrella (5)

Schiller heard the whole process of Copperpot climbing up the ranks of the North District from him.

It had to be admitted that Copperpot was a genius, especially in the field of politics. His plans were meticulous, his thinking clear, his execution strong, and his acting skills were excellent. He always played the appropriate role at the right time and fooled everyone.

At the time of Fish, he showed himself to be an unwavering defender of his own territory, as if he were a native guarding it against the invading gang bosses.

But after jumping to Kevin's side, he began to speak of Fish's brutality, claiming that the gang bosses' territorial aggression was extremely just and saved the citizens of Living Hell from dire straits.

Fish learned of his betrayal and was naturally angry, but Copperpot provided the gang bosses with an excuse for their just plunder. They had to protect him and treat him as a typical example, lifting him higher and higher to demonstrate their rule, even a cigarette vendor who couldn't lift a shoulder or a hand could gain status and power to prove that Fish's rule offered no way out for the people of Living Hell.

Copperpot had made himself the exemplary model that these gang bosses wanted to establish, not only giving himself a way out, but also intensifying the tension between Fish and these bosses, to the point of being on the verge of war.

"And then? What did you do to make Kevin start to fear you?" Schiller asked Copperpot. Before Copperpot could answer, Schiller added, "In your previous version of the story, you said that Kevin was afraid you would take his position, but there was a loophole here..."

"These gang bosses are single-minded, and few of them are afraid of a civilian. Most of them think that having a gun in their hands is what's threatening, and what about you? You're not strong enough and you don't have any armed forces. Kevin, like a traditional gang boss who only looks at the size of his fists, won't fear you for no reason."

Copperpot opened his mouth, but instead of answering Schiller's question directly, he asked him, "Why do you know so much about them?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you..." Schiller turned around and picked up a notebook from the table behind him, flipping through it as he spoke. "Let me see..."

"Among the gang bosses of Living Hell, only one has no hospital record, and the other five have all been patients here, including Kevin. I've seen him in the corridor..."

"Isn't this a mental hospital?" Copperpot widened his eyes.

"Do you think they don't have mental illness?"

Copperpot took a deep breath and found himself speechless. Schiller's words made sense. In Gotham, if you don't have a mental illness, how can you become a gang boss?

"Well, let me continue..." Schiller said.

"From the beginning, my goal was to accumulate capital, because even if I got rid of The Godfather's control, I couldn't just wander around on the street, could I? I couldn't start a gang from scratch, so I had to steal an existing one..."

"I started to win people's hearts in Kevin's gang, using my calculation ability to collect more water fees than other places, but in a way that was not detectable. I used some small benefits to bribe the lower-level personnel, gained convenience, made more money, and then used larger sums to bribe many middle-level and high-level personnel..."

"I didn't plan to act so soon, but there was a stupid guy who didn't do things carefully and let slip while reporting to Kevin that I had intercepted a lot of extra water fees."

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

"Knowing that I was embezzling water fees, Kevin was very angry. He threatened to kill me, but some of the high-level personnel I had bought off helped me avoid immediate danger."

"But I knew I had to act early. Kevin wouldn't tolerate me for too long."

"It seems that your experience is not rich enough," Schiller summed up. "In Gotham, don't expect others. They can't get anything done and will only bring trouble."

"I understand that now," Copperpot said with a cold snort.

"But even so, you don't have to go back to Fish's side. Can't you kill Kevin yourself? You should have the opportunity."

"But that doesn't solve the problem."

Copperpot's tone became somewhat helpless as he said, "That place is a rotten mud pit. Once I kill Kevin and take over myself, the change in leadership will make the gang very unstable."

"There are also several wolves around, and once there is trouble within the gang, they will come and divide up the territory."

"I can use my intelligence to kill Kevin, but I can't kill everyone. To both take over and stabilize the gang, I must rely on external forces."

"So you went back to Fish?"

"That's right. Fish was communicative at the time, and she wasn't so crazy. I confessed to her and then proposed to help her merge with the outside."

Copperpot's face was covered in wounds, but he had no expression of fear, instead he approached Fish with a cold smile and recited name after name. Fish's arm began to tremble incessantly; this madwoman had been driven insane by her delusions of persecution, and she swore to kill everyone who betrayed her.

Gunshots rang out one after another, and black figures fell at Copperpot's feet, blood flowing to his feet. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, lifted his head, and his eyes were full of crazed satisfaction.

"But why did you change your strategy later on?" Schiller asked.

"I didn't lie," Copperpot looked into Schiller's eyes and said, "Maroni approached me, although at the time I didn't know who he was."

"He told me that he had attacked several of The Godfather's industries before, and had become a mortal enemy of the Falcone family. He didn't want to see the Falcone family remaking Gotham, so he wanted to sabotage the first step of the reform."

"He knew that I was in control of the self-water supply system in the northern district, so he came to me, hoping that I would poison the water source of Living Hell."

Copperpot's tone began to get 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."

"That doesn't make sense," Schiller asked Copperpot, "your goal is to not be controlled by The Godfather, not to offend The Godfather. Don't tell me you thought you could defeat The Godfather and gain freedom by doing this."

"Of course not. How could I be so stupid?"

"Maroni?" Copperpot snorted from his nose and continued, "Did he think I would really cooperate with him? Of course not, I saw that he was a shameless dog."

"We had a plan, but besides that, I had my own plan."

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

"Right."

The curtain rose again, and with Copperpot's narration, the scene returned to Copperpot's old mansion.

The thin Copperpot was gasping for breath, slumped in the center of the living room, facing a mess.

Copperpot's wife was holding a chair and smashing it crazily on the ground, muttering incoherently.

Copperpot took a rope and tried to tie up his suddenly ill mother, but his mother pushed him to the ground. Copperpot hit the table and let out a scream. Then, Copperpot's wife swung the chair and hit his right arm.

Copperpot rolled on the ground, knocking over the cabinet and causing items to scatter on the ground.

But he still struggled to get up, half-kneeling in place, thinking for a while, then stumbled into a room and took out sleeping pills. He bypassed Copperpot's wife, who was still smashing things, and walked to the coffee table in the living room, tossing the pills into the water and then hiding in the corner waiting.

After a whole night, Copperpot's wife finally eased her excitement and the excitement receded, replaced by exhaustion and thirst. She followed her instincts to find water to drink and drank the pot of water with sleeping pills in one gulp.

After a few tens of minutes, when the medication took effect, Copperpot's wife collapsed asleep on the sofa. Copperpot then walked up and dragged her away from the sofa.

Schiller covered his forehead and interrupted Copperpot's narration, saying, "Obviously, your mother, like you, has paranoid schizophrenia... well, I can't expect you to have any knowledge in this area."

"I can only say that you did almost nothing. Even if you didn't use sleeping pills, a patient who has gone through an excited state would still pass out due to exhaustion."

Copperpot suddenly became a little nervous, trying to lift his upper body and lean against the pillow, looking Schiller in the eye, and then asked him, "Can this disease really be cured?"

"I said it could," Schiller paused, then added, "but that's for you, because you're relatively young. If it's your mother..."

He shook his head and continued, "Complete cure is unlikely, only the majority of the time can be spent living normally, and once an attack occurs, hospitalization is required."

However, Copperpot seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief. Before Schiller could ask further, he said, "As you expected, it wasn't a kidnapping scene, or rather, I kidnapped my own mother."

"This is part of my plan. I planned to send my mother away myself and then blame Maroni."

"I have saved a lot of money and rented a new apartment. I don't need to take anything from that old mansion, but my mother just won't leave..."

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

Copperpot gritted his teeth and said, "I have no idea what happened to her. Although she occasionally had moments of confusion before, it was never as serious as this time."

"She completely lost control, even picked up a fruit knife and stabbed herself. I was afraid she would hurt herself, so I had to let her sleep and then forcibly take her to the new apartment."

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

"I didn't have time." Copperpot said with a gloomy face, "I argued with my mother all day, and she went crazy all night. This time was supposed to be used to set up the scene."

"The time for me to meet with Maroni arrived, and I had to go execute the plan. I didn't have time to tidy up the house or deal with my arm, so I had to rush over..."

"Okay, so why did you fabricate a lie about Maroni kidnapping your mother?"

"That's my plan. I'm not really cooperating with that hound. Don't forget what my ultimate goal is. I want to be free."

"So, what is your plan?"

Suddenly, Copperpot's tone changed, and he said, "Just a few days ago, I found out that there's a weird guy operating in Living Hell. Of course, I've heard his name before. He's called... Batman."