The weather grew colder and colder, but honestly, the three men and their horse did not find the journey to Stone City particularly uncomfortable. It was much better than being alone deep in the mountains, as Li Long had been. At least there were people to talk to. Only over the past few days had Li Long discovered that men could gossip every bit as much as the wives and aunties in the village.
Yang Yongqiang was like a walking information bureau, going over every village affair, big and small, with something to say about practically every household.
What surprised Li Long a little was that the usually quiet Tao Daqiang occasionally chipped in too. Apparently, he knew quite a lot himself.
That made sense when he thought about it. Tao Daqiang was married, after all, and his wife came from the neighboring village. There was no way she could fit into their village without gossiping.
When those women worked together, what else did they talk about but other people's families?
This also taught Li Long, who had lived two lives, many things he had never known in his previous life.
For instance, the ancestors of the Qian Family in Laozhuangzi had taken part in the Small Swords Society uprising. Later, pursued by the Qing Court, they had fled west. They had come to Northern Xinjiang fairly early, but had not originally lived in the village, only moving there later.
For instance, the young couple who had settled in East Hamlet less than two years earlier had actually eloped. Their families had objected, so they had simply run away here.
And Ma Jinbao actually ate every kind of meat in private. People simply did not mention it.
There were also stories about who had secretly dated whom, only for the