"Dabai, let's go down and pick up the people!" Goudan's father asked the others to keep an eye on Pumpkin and took Dabai back to find people.
"Captain, County Magistrate! Over here! Dabai found another place, full of big pumpkins!" Goudan's father shouted from a distance.
"Hahaha! Great! Let's go and take a look!" County Magistrate Zhang laughed heartily. "This dog really lives up to its reputation!"
The group followed Baymax and found the big pumpkin.
Technician Li's eyes lit up. He squeezed past County Chief Zhang and ran to the melon vine to take a closer look.
The vines of the giant pumpkin had withered and turned yellow, but one could still see they were incredibly strong, thicker than his arm. The leaves, mottled and brittle, were still as big as a basin. If they hadn't withered, both the vines and the leaves would have been edible.
Technician Li picked up a handful of soil from the ground and examined it carefully in his hand.
County Chief Zhang also had a look of joy on his face, and he walked around the pumpkin, praising it.
"Xiao Li, how is it? Can you tell whether it is soil or seeds?" asked County Magistrate Zhang.
Technician Li rubbed the soil with his fingers, sniffed it under his nose, and finally took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wrapped a large handful of soil, carefully wrapped it up and put it in his pocket.
"Preliminary observations suggest the soil is very fertile. However, I've visited Wangjia Village before, and the soil at the foot of their mountain is also very fertile. So if you want specific data, you'll have to bring it back and ask the comrades at the city's scientific research institutions for further analysis."
"Okay, then let's bring back the soil from the foot of the mountain and test it as well."
After County Magistrate Zhang finished speaking, his hands itched: "Can I pick one?"
"Please come in! Please come in!" The captain quickly led County Magistrate Zhang to the largest pumpkin.
County Magistrate Zhang examined it carefully, patted the large pumpkin, and said with emotion, "Such a large pumpkin, it must be enough for many people to eat!"
"That's right," the captain replied, "one big pumpkin is worth a whole meal for our team."
County Chief Zhang picked the big pumpkin, and together with everyone else, he stood the pumpkin upright and rolled it a few times. Then he clapped his hands and stood aside.
The people of Wangjia Village sang all the way and rolled more than a dozen pumpkins back to the brigade canteen.
County Chief Zhang borrowed a tractor from the neighboring village and took back more than 20 pumpkins. He also subsidized Wangjia Village with some industrial coupons, grain coupons and a few bags of sorghum.
The people in Wangjia Village were interested in the industrial coupons, but after a few tries of picking up the sorghum, they found it was not as delicious as pumpkin.
Goudan's father urged Dabai: "Dabai, Dabai, take us to the mountains again today and see if we can find some more big pumpkins!"
This time he didn't bribe Dabai, but instead gave Jiaojiao a handful of malt sugar. He said flatteringly, "Jiaojiao, take Dabai into the mountains again!"
Gou'er followed behind, drooling at the sight of the malt sugar.
Jiaojiao knew someone from the county would have to come by today at the latest. However, this time would be a bit more complicated. It would probably take until the afternoon to find the pumpkin.
"Okay." Jiaojiao said.
"Okay!" Gou'er's father happily went home to prepare things for going up the mountain.
Jiaojiao saw the captain standing beside her, looking at her with loving eyes. She turned her eyes and said to the captain, "Captain Grandpa, can we eat the big pumpkin today? Let Grandma San and Grandma Gou'er cook it now!"
"Okay! I'll let them burn it right away!" The captain agreed without asking why and turned to look for his wife.
Around noon, a group of people arrived on the main road east of the village. Leading them was a middle-aged man wearing a Mao suit and with his hair neatly combed.
The group parked their bicycles under the locust tree at the entrance of the village. The man in the Zhongshan suit walked in front with his hands behind his back, and the others surrounded him as they walked into Wangjia Village.
The team leader was discussing how to use the industrial vouchers with the accountant at the brigade. When he looked up, he saw the Zhongshan suit. He couldn't help but sigh and muttered, "Why is this plague god here?"
His face was filled with joy and he greeted him with an exaggerated expression: "Hello, Secretary Wang! I didn't know you were coming. I'm sorry for not welcoming you!"
Secretary Wang glanced at him, nodded, cleared his throat, and said, "Captain Wang, right? I heard your brigade has a giant pumpkin? Where is it? Take me to see it!"
"Okay! Please come this way! We have a big pumpkin left in our team cafeteria, but we can't bear to eat it. I'll take you to see it!"
The captain led the way, and the group staggered towards the cafeteria.
In the brigade cafeteria, after breakfast, the team leader's wife and Wang Guifen began to pick up large pumpkins. Young men from the village helped them split the pumpkins, while they chatted and laughed as they dug seeds out of the pumpkins.
"This big pumpkin is full of seeds. If I use it to grow seedlings, how many pumpkin seedlings will it produce?" Wang Guifen sighed. As she spoke, she picked out a few of the largest and fullest ones and stuffed them into her pocket. "I'll take a few and plant them by the fence when I get home to see if they can grow this big."
The captain's wife smiled and said, "I have saved all the seeds from our Wangjia Village. I processed them yesterday and was exhausted. I am just waiting to plant them in two days."
When digging the first pumpkin, the captain's wife had already kept all the seeds in the village.
Wang Guifen chuckled, "You're really smart. I saved some last time. This time I'll give some to my parents."
Such a good pumpkin, big and delicious, and most importantly, very filling. Which farmer would not save some seeds after seeing it?
After digging up the seeds, Wang Guifen asked a young man from the village to help. He took a machete and chopped the pumpkin into countless pieces.
"Should we cook it now?" Wang Guifen asked the captain's wife. They had just finished breakfast. Dinner usually started around two or three in the afternoon and started around four. But today, after breakfast and washing the dishes, the captain's wife pulled her aside and asked her to stay and pick up the pumpkin.
"Burn it! Burn it first. When you want to eat it in the evening, just heat it up with a handful of firewood and you can eat it soon." The captain's wife pulled the bellows and threw wood into the stove.
"OK!"
Anyway, it had to be done sooner or later, so Wang Guifen covered the huge pot with a lid, and then covered the other pot with a lid. The two of them chatted while making a fire.
By the time the captain and a group of people wandered into the cafeteria, the big pumpkin had already been gutted and thrown into the pot, bubbling.
"Oh! Who told you to cook dinner so early? Ah? That's really nonsense!" The captain jumped up and down!
You! The captain's wife rolled her eyes inwardly, but outwardly asked in panic, "Huh? What's wrong? We went out to look for food and came back late yesterday, so everyone had dinner very late. I decided to cook it early today, so we can heat it up with a handful of firewood and eat it quickly."
"The secretary said he wanted to come and see the big pumpkin. Look at you! How do you do things?" The captain glared at his wife and Wang Guifen and scolded them.
"Secretary? Didn't the county magistrate just come to visit? He even took our big pumpkin away! What is the secretary doing here? He's not going to take our pumpkin too, is he?"
Wang Guifen was quick to speak. She looked into the pot, opened it, and said, "There's no pumpkin left, but it's a coincidence. When the pumpkin porridge is ready, I'll give him a bowl to try."
The man in the Zhongshan suit's face darkened, and the veins on his forehead throbbed. "Give him a bowl to try? Does he need your bowl of pumpkin porridge?"
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