What kind of divination am I doing?

Someone fired a shot? Lu Qiao jumped in fright!

His instinctive reaction immediately made Lu Qiao squat down.

After crouching down, Lu Qiao calmed down considerably and realized what was happening when he saw the black cat in front of him.

Inside the Outland tavern in the cellar, Luqiao heard the black cat make a human voice.

At this moment, it just meows, but it translates the content in its own mind.

Lu Qiao glanced at the cellar and then at the house, beginning to weigh the pros and cons.

If someone fires a shot, the optimal solution is definitely to return to the Outland bar.

"Should we hide back at the Outer Realm Bar first?" Lu Qiao asked Black Cat.

Black Cat shook his head slightly at Lu Qiao: "What a coward! Hiding there for such a trivial matter? That's a place for exchanging intelligence, not for you to escape to! Judging from the gunshots, they came from Chinatown, not the castle. It's not a big deal if they're not looking for us!"

"What should we do then?" Lu Qiao asked.

The black cat sized up the road and bridge, looking down on it. "I'll go see what's going on. You stay hidden for now."

After saying that, the black cat strode off towards the castle.

Lu Qiao shouted, "Weren't you going to take a look? What are you doing back inside?"

Two meows came: "I'll use my ability to foresee the future, without having to be there in person!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Qiao retorted, "Just say you're afraid of dying!"

The black cat darted away in a few steps and disappeared, leaving Lu Qiao alone, crouching down.

There were two gunshots at the beginning, and then there was no more sound.

"Is this really the free America, where shootings happen every day?" Lu Qiao muttered to himself as he followed the black cat.

Just in case, Lu Qiao crouched low as he walked toward the castle.

As Lu Qiao crouched low and reached the front yard, he saw six passersby slipping inside the castle walls on both sides, peeking out from behind the gate at times to look at Chinatown in the distance.

Clearly, the moment the gunshot rang out, these people ran in fear into the castle, which hadn't been closed.

At a glance, Luqiao saw that these people included white people, black people, and even Chinese people.

Lu Qiao shouted, "Do you know what happened?"

The group of people were startled and cried out.

Some people collapsed and thrashed to the ground, some squatted down and covered their heads, and some knelt down and raised their hands.

This action startled Luqiao, who reacted quite strongly.

But it only took a few seconds for the road bridge to come out from inside; it must have been people from the castle, and everyone calmed down.

"Hey bro, keep your voice down, come over and hide!" The Chinese man peeking out from the gate waved to Lu Qiao.

At that moment, Luqiao heard the foreigner reply in English, "You need to hide! Someone's robbing a jewelry store! They have guns!"

Lu Qiao realized that, given his English level, he should be able to understand some parts and then try to decipher others.

But Luqiao understood; it felt like the language was automatically translated into meaning once it entered his mind.

Just like the way those foreign races speak and the way cats meow, this is clearly a power granted by the black cat.

With just these few words, Luqiao understood the gist of the matter.

The silly cat needs divination to predict the future, but I can ask the question much faster than the silly cat.

Lu Qiao quickly stepped forward, reached the right side of the iron gate, and peeked out from in front of an old black man.

The castle gate is located diagonally opposite the exit of Chinatown.

The part about roads and bridges reflects the Chinese people's tendency to join in the fun, making them eager to try it out.

Lu Qiao had already planned his escape route. If the other party really chased after him, he still had the key in his hands, so he might as well just go to the Outer Realms.

As long as I don't die, everything else is trivial.

As soon as Lu Qiao arrived at his spot, he secretly glanced at the crowd and saw five men wearing hoodies and carrying backpacks coming out.

The first man to emerge, wearing a hoodie, raised his gun and fired three shots into the sky, eliciting gasps from inside Chinatown.

Lu Qiao was also startled, but then realized that the gunshot was a warning to everyone not to get close.

The other four rushed out of the jewelry store, three of them supporting one as they walked out.

The man being helped was limping, as if he had injured his foot.

The gold shop is the third store in Chinatown, and it's about a dozen meters away from there.

All five men raised their guns and fired into the sky, deterring ordinary people hiding in Chinatown from showing their faces.

The five men, using gunfire as cover, made their way to the entrance of Chinatown.

The five people who ran out were stunned, their faces filled with panic.

The scene was silent, and Luqiao overheard the five people talking.

He spoke very softly, but Luqiao could hear him as long as he looked at him.

It was clearly due to this ability, and Luqiao focused his attention on it.

"Where are they? Didn't they say they'd wait for us?"

"Did the plan change because the shooting happened?"

"Damn it, what do we do now?"

There were no cars on the street anymore; the gunshots had driven them away from Chinatown.

The five men's attempt to flag down the car and escape became impossible.

Just then, the sound of sirens rang out from afar, gradually approaching.

"There's no escape!"

"Go back, hide back there and think of something else!"

"Call Lao Shen."

The three people's words appeared directly in Lu Qiao's mind, like their innermost thoughts, so Lu Qiao didn't know what language they were speaking.

But this Old Shen's name sounds like a Chinese person's name.

The five thugs left but returned.

They returned to the jewelry store, where employees and tourists were seen running out.

But the five men didn't care how many of the other party had escaped, and even deliberately let people out of the jewelry store.

They retreated back into the jewelry store.

Firing a shot into the air and fleeing without killing indicates that he did not intend to kill.

We agreed to wait? The plan changed? This means our companion ran away.

When these words were put together, Lu Qiao realized that they seemed to only want to rob the gold and not kill anyone, but now they had no choice.

"Why did we go back?"

On the other side of the iron gate of the ancient castle on this side of the road bridge, the Chinese hiding there muttered to themselves.

Another Chinese person explained, "It seems the people who were picking them up ran away. We didn't see the whole thing. Five unlicensed motorcycles were parked at the entrance. This group of people got off and went into the jewelry store, but shortly after, gunshots rang out, and the motorcycles at the entrance all drove away."

Listening to their conversation, Lu Qiao added, "The recent surge in gold prices has indeed been outrageous."

Two police cars, sirens blaring, arrived at the entrance of Chinatown and blocked the gate.

Several agents quickly got out of the car, used it as cover, and pointed their guns at the jewelry store. They then began to contact reinforcements via walkie-talkie.

Upon seeing the police cars arrive, the foreigners mustered their courage and ran out of the castle gates, scattering in both directions to leave this troublesome place.

Several other people who were running alongside the car were hiding behind it; they were probably foreigners whose legs gave way and who hadn't run away immediately.

Only Lu Qiao and the two Chinese people who had been chatting remained in the courtyard; Lu Qiao was on the left, and the two Chinese people were on the right.

The situation was clearly under control, as the agents had put the matter in order.

The jewelry store slowly closed its electric roller shutter door, presumably because the assailants had taken the employee hostage and found the switch.

The next step should have been to negotiate and discuss getting the car back so they could escape.

Seeing the gold shop's rolling shutter door close, the two Chinese men also walked out of the castle gate.

Lu Qiao followed the two out and stood on the main road to watch.

Although they stepped forward, they were still afraid and hid behind the car. If anything serious happened, they could crouch down and hide back in the castle.

"Hey bro, what's your name? I've seen this house before; the owner seems to be a Chinese woman?"

Lu Qiao was taken aback. The other person actually knew his aunt, but his aunt was dead and the other person didn't know that.

Luqiao realized that it might be because he was unfamiliar with the business, or perhaps the law firm had covered up the news well after taking over, and they were eager to sell and didn't want to lower the price.

"That's my aunt. She went back to China for some business, so I'm temporarily helping to run this place," Lu Qiao casually offered an excuse.

"Business is tough these days. My name is Liu Bo, and this is Zhao Pengcheng. We're both small business owners in Chinatown. We were just strolling around at lunchtime when we had nothing to do. Who knew something like this would happen?" Liu Bo introduced himself and extended his hand.

"My name is Lu Qiao." Lu Qiao smiled and shook hands naturally.

Lu Qiao thought to himself, if their businesses didn't conflict, these two were practically neighbors, so getting to know each other wouldn't be a bad thing.

The other person, Zhao Pengcheng, was much more reserved. He waved to Lu Qiao but did not shake hands.

Now that they were acquainted, Lu Qiao stood to the right of the two.

The three grown men, looking at the scene before them, since it wasn't happening to them, were just having some fun.

"Who owns this jewelry store? Cheng Peng, do you know?"

Looking at the somewhat dazed Cheng Peng, he pondered and said, "It seems to be Boss Shen's. I have a rumor that he owes a lot of money. Actually, when the robbery first started, I thought Boss Shen had staged it himself, but now that they've fired shots, I guess it's not."

Lu Qiao listened and asked, "Boss Shen?"

The five thugs also mentioned this name, so was it a case of guessing that this was a staged incident?

"How do you two know each other?" Liu Bo and Zhao Chengpeng looked at Lu Qiao.

"I don't know it, but I'm curious about the name," Lu Qiao said with a smile.

"It's a good thing you don't recognize him. He's an old gambler. He took over the business from his father, and he's probably squandered most of it," Liu Bo explained.

Zhao Chengpeng nodded in agreement, clearly agreeing with Liu Bo's statement.

Lu Qiao pondered Zhao Chengpeng's words and, considering his own perspective, realized that this was clearly a self-directed and self-acted performance, but an accident occurred midway through.

But Lu Qiao still asked with doubt, "No, if this self-directed and self-acted drama is real, aren't you afraid they'll all end up in jail?"

"This is just a guess, and my words don't count," Zhao Chengpeng explained, clearly indicating that he didn't want to be associated with the matter regardless of its veracity.

"Brother, you're new to America, so it's understandable that you don't know. As long as the rules aren't written here, you're fine. Even if something happens, it's a lawyer's problem. As long as you have money, you can get bail indefinitely and litigate endlessly. No matter how big the case is, the lawsuit can drag on for a hundred years. Even if the lawsuit drags on for a hundred years, you might not live to be a hundred years old." Liu Bo chuckled.

"You can do that?" Lu Qiao smiled.

Zhao Chengpeng said angrily, "It's all because this place is too chaotic. Just thinking about it makes me angry. In this place, robbing someone for less than $950 without causing injury or death is considered petty theft! They can just pay some money and get out. It's outrageous!"

Liu Bo started talking: "I heard it's because there are too many people in the prison and they're going to increase the number of cells to 1,500!"

The two people in front of the road and bridge already knew each other, and when they started talking about this topic, they became very talkative.

While the two were chatting, more and more police cars arrived, and yellow and black police tape was put up.

The police cars fanned out around the entire jewelry store, providing a sense of security.

After the gold shop was surrounded, the tourists and shop assistants who had been hiding in Chinatown mustered their courage and came out.

Those who should leave, leave; those who should join in the fun, join in the fun.

Even when they saw a media vehicle in Luqiao, the male reporter carrying a camera and the female reporter started working.

The reason why the media vehicle could be identified is because Luqiao's ability to spot the black cat is truly remarkable.

Now, no matter which language Luqiao looks at, as long as he wants to know the meaning, the meaning will immediately come to mind.

Chinatown became lively again, and the detectives first conducted the evacuation in English.

It had an effect, but the Chinese community and reporters still surrounded it.

Realizing that communication had failed, the agents used the walkie-talkie to contact a Chinese translator and began repeatedly shouting in broken Chinese, "Danger, get away!"

The message was brief, but effective.

The crowd was brought under control, but some people who enjoyed watching the spectacle refused to leave.

Luqiao could understand; those who lived in Chinatown and ran shops obviously couldn't do business today and had nothing else to do, so they closed their shops and came out to join in the fun.

Those who were more vigilant would peek out from the nearest shop, while the bolder ones would stand directly behind the detectives and others to watch.

Several police cars, carrying more than a dozen detectives, assembled and lined up in a row, fully armed and wearing riot shields.

Upon arrival, they began with a very formulaic announcement: "You are surrounded. Lay down your weapons and surrender..."

The sirens, combined with announcements over a loudspeaker, were clearly meant to put pressure on the robbers inside the jewelry store.

The movie has become a reality; Lu Qiao had only ever seen such scenes in movies before.

Observing it in person is definitely a unique experience.

"I guess the kidnappers will trade some of the hostages for a car, then flee with the remaining hostages to another location and release them later? That's how it's always portrayed in movies!" Lu Qiao offered his opinion, observing the situation.

Liu Bo continued Lu Qiao's words, saying, "It's not that simple. Movies are artistic creations! Besides, this is a movie with robbers as the main characters. It's more likely that special forces will enter the scene, cut in through the pipes to seal off the smoke, and then rescue the hostages and kill the robbers."

Zhao Chengpeng shook his head: "Isn't what you're saying just artistic embellishment? The situation is basically a dead end. At this point, I think the only thing we can do is negotiate terms that both sides can accept, and then the robbers will come out and surrender."

The three of them clearly had different ideas at this moment, and the next moment, the roller door was opened a crack.

Everyone tensed up, and the timid ones began to retreat and run away.

The roller shutter door only opens to ankle level, revealing a small gap.

Zhao Chengpeng pondered for a moment and said, "Are they going to come out and surrender?"

Liu Bo shook his head: "How could they possibly surrender? I bet they're taking hostages to negotiate?"

Zhao Chengpeng got angry: "How about we make a bet? Will you come out and surrender, or take hostages?"

Liu Bo also became interested: "This kind of gambling is meaningless. If we're going to gamble, let's gamble on the fate of the robbers—whether they live or die, surrender or be killed!"

Zhao Chengpeng nodded in agreement: "When have you ever beaten me? I think the chances of a kill are much higher!"

"It's no fun playing with just two people. What do you think, Lu Qiao?" Liu Bo looked at Lu Qiao.