Chapter 722: Taihe Building

The teahouse near Yunlai Inn isn’t particularly large, but it does have a two-story structure.

At this moment, it’s afternoon—peak time when people are most plentiful.

On the platform in the main hall on the first floor, a slightly chubby middle-aged storyteller has just finished a lengthy narration and is sipping tea to moisten his throat.

Duan Rong entered the teahouse, glanced at the storyteller, and headed straight for the second floor.

He casually ordered a few dishes and a pot of clear tea and then sat down at a window-side seat.

Duan Rong sat there, gazing out the window, observing the pedestrians and the buildings in this area.

This isn’t the center of Divine Cloud Prefecture; he deliberately entered the city through the East City Gate and chose a relatively secluded Yunlai Inn to avoid attracting attention.

At this moment, Duan Rong’s mind was peaceful, watching the bustling crowd, feeling a sense of leisure.

After a while, he couldn’t help but sigh, “The mountains may be tranquil, but lively places are more suited for living.”

Duan Rong had already decided that if he ever achieved great cultivation, he wouldn’t hide away in the deep mountains but would certainly find a place in the bustling city to settle down. “The mundane world is the true arena.”

Duan Rong was merely daydreaming for a while, and soon withdrew from that comfortable mental realm.

He wasn’t here at the teahouse just to enjoy tea and idle sitting.

Duan Rong glanced briefly at the scattered guests chatting idly upstairs, and his Divine Sense suddenly expanded.

Before coming here, Zhu He had assigned him two tasks. One was to secretly eliminate Li Shensi, the Minister of the Secretariat, and the other was to control and guide public opinion in the market, preventing it from fermenting towards a political whirlpool.

In Duan Rong’s view, these two tasks were closely linked.

For instance, the manner in which Li Shensi is eliminated would have entirely different impacts on public opinion.

This is why, during the discussion, when Fan Hongjiao suggested directly assassinating Li Shensi in the main hall in disguise, she was immediately scolded by Zhu He.

Therefore, when considering the method of eliminating Li Shensi, one must also ponder on how to guide public opinion accordingly. This truly embodies the saying “One who doesn’t plan for the entire situation can’t plan for one area.”

However, to guide public opinion subsequently, one must first understand the opinion arena of Divine Cloud Prefecture, guess and speculate what kinds of topics might spread here like wildfire…

Although Duan Rong had lived in this realm for six or seven years, to accurately grasp public opinion, this span of time was actually far from enough.

Moreover, during these six or seven years, he spent most of his time cultivating diligently, and he always lived with the mindset of a modern person in this realm.

He didn’t genuinely understand some underlying sentiments of the everyday people in this realm’s urban life.

Sitting in this teahouse, Duan Rong aimed to listen precisely to these sentiments.

He wanted to use this opportunity to understand the public opinion arena of Divine Cloud Prefecture.

In fact, the task Zhu He assigned to Duan Rong, if placed in the modernized world of the internet from his previous life, would actually be a common task, especially for PR professionals whose job often involves public opinion monitoring.

At this moment, Duan Rong was doing similar work in the teahouse’s sea of information. However, it was merely the tools that had changed; he was employing Divine Sense Investigation.

Duan Rong stayed in the teahouse until it closed at the hour of Hai in the evening, before getting up to leave.

After exiting the teahouse, he grabbed a bite on the street, then returned to the inn to sleep.

The journey had been tiring, and monitoring public opinion in the teahouse was also taxing on his mind. Duan Rong fell asleep as soon as he lay on the bed and didn’t wake up until the third watch of the sun the next day.

After freshening up, he ate some breakfast in the inn and then spent another day sitting in the teahouse.

It wasn’t until he sat in that teahouse for three consecutive days that he decided to change locations.

That teahouse was, after all, in a secluded spot in the East District of Divine Cloud Prefecture; monitoring only that place would make the public opinion sample far too singular.

On the morning of the fourth day, Duan Rong walked into Taihe Building on Changle Street.

Taihe Building is the largest teahouse in Divine Cloud Prefecture.

Not only is its location ideal, being by the river, but it is also situated on the prosperous Changle Street, where land is as precious as gold. The people who come here to drink tea are invariably wealthy or noble.

Taihe Building has a total of three stories.

The first floor is a hall where renowned performers often narrate stories and sing songs on stage.

The second floor contains elegant open seating.

But the most critical part is the third floor.

The third floor comprises private rooms, where numerous high officials and nobility have their exclusive year-round private rooms, and the price is certainly hefty.

Upon entering the teahouse, Duan Rong immediately sensed an entirely different atmosphere.

The hall on the first floor was already occupied by quite a few guests.

On the stage in the hall, a performer with powdered face was singing melodiously, both her appearance and voice carrying a faint sense of melancholy.

What surprised Duan Rong wasn’t the performer on stage but rather the fact that while the teahouse was already populated with guests and some were engaged in quiet chatter, the overall feeling still remained calm.

This was entirely different from the secluded teahouse in the East District.

Duan Rong leisurely made his way upstairs, picking a corner seat by the window and sitting down quietly. In such an atmosphere, even his footsteps had unconsciously softened.

Not long after Duan Rong sat down, a waiter approached him with a subtle, restrained smile on his face.

The waiter was clad in a simply-colored brocade robe, the colors weren’t flashy, but the fabric was undoubtedly top-notch.

The waiter came over and handed Duan Rong a list and a Vermillion Pen.

Duan Rong glanced at the list and immediately understood; he marked a few items with the Vermillion Pen and handed it back to the waiter.