A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 442 Taihe Building

The teahouse near Yunlai Inn is not very big, but it has two floors.

It was afternoon, a time when there were many people.

On the stage in the lobby on the first floor of the teahouse, a middle-aged, slightly plump storyteller had just finished a long story and was drinking tea to moisten his throat.

Duan Rong walked into the teahouse, glanced at the storyteller, and went straight to the second floor.

He ordered a few dishes and a pot of tea, then sat down at a seat by the window.

Duan Rong sat there, looking out the window, looking at the pedestrians on the street and the buildings in this area.

This place is not the center of Shenyun Mansion. He deliberately entered the city from the east gate and chose a rather remote Yunlai Inn just because he did not want to attract attention.

Duan Rong was in a peaceful mood at this time. Looking at the people coming and going, he felt quite relaxed.

After looking around for a while, he sighed: "After all, life in the mountains is hard, and it is better to live in a lively place."

Duan Rong has made up his mind that if he succeeds in cultivation in the future, he will never hide in the mountains, but will find a place to live in this bustling city. "The world is the place of practice."

Duan Rong just daydreamed for a while and then pulled himself out of the leisurely mood.

He came to this teahouse not just to drink tea and sit around.

Duan Rong took a quick look at the guests who were chatting in groups of three or four upstairs, and suddenly his mind was freed.

Before he came, Zhu He gave him two tasks. One was to kill Shangshu Ling Li Shensi without anyone noticing, and the other was to control and guide the public opinion and prevent it from fermenting in the direction of the political vortex.

In Duan Rong's view, these two tasks are closely related.

For example, if Li Shensi was killed in a different way, it would have a completely different impact on the public opinion.

This is also why, during the meeting, when Fan Hongjiao said that she had directly covered her face and assassinated Li Shensi in the hall, she was immediately scolded by Zhu He.

Therefore, when thinking about how to kill Li Shensi, we must take into account how to guide the public opinion. This is exactly why those who do not consider the overall situation are not qualified to consider a specific area.

However, if he wanted to guide the public opinion in the future, he had to first understand the public opinion field of Shenyun Mansion and guess what kind of topics would spread here like fire taking advantage of the wind...

Although Duan Rong has lived in this world for six or seven years, these six or seven years are far from enough to accurately control public opinion.

What's more, during these six or seven years, he spent most of his time practicing asceticism, and he has always lived in this world with the thinking of a modern man.

He didn't really understand some of the underlying feelings of the spiritual world of the everyday people in this world.

Duan Rong was sitting in the teahouse, and this was the part he wanted to listen to.

He wanted to use this opportunity to understand the public opinion field in Shenyun Mansion.

In fact, the task that Zhu He assigned to Duan Rong would be a common task in the modern Internet world of the previous life, especially for people working in public relations. One of their tasks is called public opinion monitoring.

At this time, Duan Rong was doing a similar job in the teahouse. However, he just changed his tools, and the tool he used was the divine sense to explore.

Duan Rong sat in the teahouse until it closed at 11 p.m., then he got up and left.

He left the teahouse, ate something on the street, and then went back to the inn to sleep.

After a long journey and having to concentrate on monitoring public opinion in the teahouse, Duan Rong lay down on the bed and fell asleep instantly. He slept until noon the next day.

Duan Rong washed up, had some breakfast in the inn, and then went to the teahouse to sit for the whole day.

He sat in that teahouse for three days before moving to another place.

After all, that teahouse was located in a remote place in the East City District of Shenyun Prefecture. If he only monitored this one place, the sample for public opinion monitoring would be too single.

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

Taihe Tower is the largest teahouse in Shenyun Mansion.

Not only is the location good, facing the river, but it is also on Changle Street, where every inch of land is worth a lot of money. Those who come here to drink tea are either rich or noble.

Taihe Building has three floors in total.

The first floor is the hall, where famous actors often tell stories and sing songs on the stage.

The second floor is a spacious and elegant room.

The most important thing is the third floor.

The third floor is the private rooms. Many dignitaries have their own private rooms on the third floor all year round, and the prices are naturally very high.

As soon as Duan Rong entered the teahouse, he felt the atmosphere was very different.

There were already quite a few guests sitting in the lobby on the first floor.

On the stage in the hall, an actor with makeup on was singing Pingtan in a moaning voice. There was a hint of desolation in his appearance and voice.

What surprised Duan Rong was not the actors on the stage, but the fact that although there were already quite a few customers in the teahouse, some of whom were chatting in low voices, the whole teahouse still gave people a quiet feeling.

This is completely different from the remote teahouse in Dongcheng District.

Duan Rong walked slowly up to the second floor, picked a seat in a corner by the window, and sat down quietly. In such an atmosphere, Duan Rong's footsteps could not help but become lighter.

Duan Rong had just sat down when a waiter came over with a subtle smile on his face.

The waiter was actually wearing a plain brocade suit. Although the color was not eye-catching, the material was definitely of top quality.

The waiter came over and handed Duan Rong a list and a cinnabar pen.

Duan Rong understood everything as soon as he saw the list. He marked a few items with a cinnabar pen and handed it to the waiter.

The waiter bowed slightly towards him, took the order and left.

During the whole process, the two did not say a word.

Duan Rong looked at the waiter's departing back and sighed slightly. Although he had traveled through time, for some reason, at that moment, he actually felt like a country bumpkin entering the city.

Not long after, a pot of tea and a few side dishes were served. The waiter placed the dishes on the table, bowed with his hands lowered, and then left.

Duan Rong took a few sips of the tea and found it was indeed mellow and fragrant.

He tasted the side dishes again, but frowned.

To be honest, the taste is very average, even worse than that remote teahouse in Dongcheng District.

Duan Rong then realized that the guests at the nearby tables were all sitting there chatting and basically didn't eat.

He immediately understood that Taihelou could certainly make good dishes, and at the very least, they would not be worse than the remote teahouse in Dongcheng District.

However, a teahouse is a teahouse, not a restaurant.

Perhaps the most valuable thing about Taihe Building is its atmosphere.

As long as this atmosphere exists, people who have been here will want to come again.

However, delicious dishes and this atmosphere are in conflict with each other, so Taihelou would rather sacrifice the taste of the dishes to preserve the purity of the atmosphere.

This is also a way of doing business.

Duan Rong stayed in Taihe Tower for two days.

In the past two days, some of the topics that these dignitaries talked about really shattered Duan Rong's worldview. Not to mention the love between Long Yang, after all, there was also such a thing in ancient times on Blue Star. Some topics are really hard to describe in a few words...

After listening for two days, Duan Rong felt unwell.

The so-called high society is really nothing more than a flea on a gorgeous dress.

Having said that, not everyone was talking about this topic. After two days, Duan Rong still gained a lot.

The next day, before dawn, Duan Rong climbed out of his room in the inn.

He walked to the lobby on the first floor of the inn, only to see that the door was still closed. On the counter, a candle was about to burn out, the flame flickering. Behind the counter, there was a faint snoring sound.

Duan Rong walked over and saw a waiter sleeping on a bench behind the counter.

Duan Rong stood there and knocked on the counter.

The guy woke up and almost fell off the stool. He rubbed his sleepy eyes, stood up and looked at Duan Rong.

Duan Rong smiled and said, "Sorry to bother you with your rest. Please open the door for me."

The waiter asked, "Why are the guests leaving so early?"

Duan Rong said: "Yes. I have something to do."

The guy removed the two middle door panels, and Duan Rong walked out of the inn sideways.

The clerk stretched his head to look outside, and seeing that it was dark and quiet, he yawned and replaced the two door panels. He turned around and blew out the candle on the counter that was about to burn out, then lay down on the bench and fell asleep.

Duan Rong moved in the darkness, like a ghost, floating in the dark night.

At this time, it was still dark, with a lone star hanging upside down in the sky. But he still got up a little late.

In the past few days, through public opinion monitoring, he has obtained a huge amount of information.

One of them is that civil servants above the third rank in Shenyun Mansion will hold a court meeting every three days.

The venue for the court meeting was in the lobby of the government office in the prefectural city.

The time is 3:15 am.

After Duan Rong crossed a few blocks, he could faintly hear the trembling sound of the night watchman's clapper in the distance. He dodged and counted silently in his mind...

After counting, Duan Rong thought to himself, "It's already the morning hour, I hope I can make it in time."

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but speed up his pace.

After another two blocks, he suddenly stopped not far from an alley entrance.

I saw that the alley was dark. Deep in the alley, there were two lanterns hanging in front of the door of a big house. From a distance, the two dim lanterns looked like dim stars in the dark sky.

On the other side of the alley, there is a wonton stall, steaming hot. Two figures are busy working under the light, and they seem to be a couple.

It's still a little chilly in the early autumn morning in Shenyun Mansion, so a bowl of wontons is just right to warm you up.

Duan Rong walked over, sat down at the stall, and ordered a bowl of wontons and a tray of buns.

"Guest, the wontons are ready, just put them in the pot. You may have to wait a while for the buns, they have just been steamed and are still steaming."

"No hurry, have a bowl of wontons first. It will warm you up."

"Hi!"

After a while, the steaming wontons with chopped green onions were served.

Duan Rong poured a big spoonful of chili on the wontons and slurped them while glancing towards the alley entrance out of the corner of his eye.

Li Shensi lives in that alley. Today is the court meeting day, and as the Minister of the Chancellery, he must attend as usual.

Duan Rong and others were here just to see Li Shensi. To be honest, up to now, he didn't even know what the person he wanted to kill looked like.

Let’s just take a face to face first.

Duan Rong slurped up half a bowl of wontons when he suddenly saw a sedan chair being carried out from the alley.

The four bearers were all burly, and the sedan chair was swaying slightly at a certain fixed frequency. In front of the sedan chair, there was a servant riding a horse slowly, holding a lantern, leading the way.

At this moment, the man placed a tray of buns in front of Duan Rong, but Duan Rong lowered his head and did not even raise it.

At this time, his spiritual sense had already been released, penetrating the sedan chair and locking onto the person in it.

The sedan chair was occupied by a tall man with muscular arms and a full beard.

The Shangshu Ling is the top civil official, but this man looks like a military man.

Duan Rong's spiritual sense swept across the patch on the front of the man's official uniform, and there was a crane on the patch.

The official system of Qingzhou.

The patches on the uniforms of civil officials are birds, while those on the uniforms of military officials are animals.

The crane is the leader of the birds, which also means that the person in the sedan chair is a first-rank civil official.

It’s Li Shensi!
After confirming his identity, the next moment, Duan Rong's spiritual sense penetrated this person's dantian.

"The fourth level of the True Qi Realm!"

Duan Rong slurped another mouthful of wonton and thought to himself: In the secular world, I am considered a top master.

At this time, the sedan chair had passed the wonton stall and headed towards the street ahead.

Duan Rong looked at the sedan chair in the dark, his eyes flickering.

In fact, if he wanted to kill Li Shensi, he could do it now.

Even if the couple at the wonton stall met him, he could kill them all.

For him who had already achieved the fourth level of Yuan Qi Realm, this was a piece of cake.

However, if Li Shensi was assassinated on the way to the court meeting, public opinion would explode and would inevitably ferment in the direction of a political whirlpool.

After all, two Shangshu Ling died in accidents one after another.

Moreover, Li Shensi had only been in office for two months when he was assassinated in the street.

Such news is like pouring a bucket of cold water into a hot oil pan. It's bound to explode!

"Li Shensi! Li Shensi! How can I kill you?"

Duan Rong sat there, quietly eating wontons and buns, thinking in his mind.

After he finished eating, he touched his mouth, paid a few coins, and left.

After Duan Rong left the wonton stall, he turned into the alley in the dark night.

He walked slowly to the big house in the alley and saw two lanterns hanging on the gate with the words "Li Mansion" written on them.

Duan Rong went around to the darkness, and with a thought, he released his spiritual consciousness again.

The spiritual consciousness instantly penetrated the wall and the courtyard, covering most of the house in an instant.

Except for the yawning guard on patrol, the entire house was silent at this time.

Duan Rong suddenly appeared like a ghost and climbed over the courtyard wall.

He landed gracefully on the ground and was already in the shadow of a big tree in the yard.

Not long ago, a team of security guards patrolled here.

Then, Duan Rong went in and out repeatedly in the dark and explored Li Shensi's house thoroughly.

However, he did not discover anything.

Li Shensi was originally the lord of Nanyang Prefecture and had been serving in the local government. He had only been in Shenyun Prefecture for two months, and he had just acquired this mansion, so he had no time to manage it. How could there be any secrets?

After Duan Rong finished exploring the house, he found that it was already dawn, so he escaped from the shadow of a tree, walked along the other end of the alley, and turned out of the neighborhood.

(End of this chapter)