The pumpkin and winter melon were really too big.
Winter melons are fine, since they are long and cylindrical, making them much easier to move.
Although pumpkins are not perfectly round, they are somewhat oval or irregularly round, making them difficult to handle.
Despite the difficulties, everyone persevered in carrying the pumpkins back home.
One pumpkin can fill the stomachs of many people, so how could they possibly give up so many pumpkins?
Besides pumpkins, sweet potatoes and corn are also very productive. While digging sweet potatoes and picking corn, people also fantasize about whether these crops can be saved for seed.
Will they be able to eat such large quantities of grain regularly in the future?
Chen Suwen didn't care about all that. She led the way for everyone, helped with the work for half a day, and then went home.
Once these things are collected, they become collective property, and it's unlikely that she can keep any for herself. So why should she work with others?
Chen Su asked her if she needed these few melons and dates again.
"Really, let me tell you, that pumpkin was huge, weighing several hundred or even a thousand pounds."
"A pumpkin that's taller than me! This is the first time I've ever seen such a big pumpkin."
After Zhou Min returned home, she boasted to her family about what she had seen. Zhou Cunzhi and his brother were skeptical of what their sister said.
"Mom, is what my little sister said true? Are there really melons that big?" Zhou Cunzong asked his mother. "If we plant them too, will we never lack food again?"
"Are you willing to eat pumpkin and sweet potato every day? Without rice?" Chen Suwen asked quietly.
She definitely couldn't do it.
As a native of southern China, she still prefers to eat white rice, or rice noodles, porridge, or other staple foods made from rice.
She didn't even like glutinous rice as much as regular rice in some staple foods.
She mainly eats corn and sweet potatoes as snacks and desserts. It's okay for her to eat them occasionally, but it's impossible for her to eat them with every meal.
“No, I still prefer white rice.” Zhou Cunzong quickly shook his head; he didn’t like eating pumpkin every day either.
"Alright, I've boiled a pot of water. All of you, go and take a medicinal bath." Chen Suwen directly instructed the people to start taking the medicinal bath.
She even went so far as to buy several large wooden tubs: one large enough for an adult man to sit in, one large enough for an adult woman to sit in, and one large enough for a child under ten years old to sit in.
These bathtubs are like the ones in period dramas, where people sit in the tub on a small stool and soak in the bath, with the tub so tight that you can touch their shoulders and neck.
Chen Suwen's space does have a bathtub, and it's a new bathtub. She found it later in a furniture store when she passed by a shopping mall. It was an unsold bathtub.
She stored it in her spatial storage.
But back in 1975, even if someone might have used a bathtub, it was not something her ordinary working-class family could afford.
So, let's stick with wooden barrels.
"Mom, is this medicinal bath reliable?" Zhou Cunzong carried the large bath tub meant for adult men to the bathroom, while doubting his mother's words.
He had only ever seen medicinal baths in books, usually in martial arts novels.
"How is a medicinal bath unreliable? If you bathe in water boiled with pomelo leaves, isn't that also a medicinal bath?"
Chen Suwen rolled her eyes at her son.
Medicated baths are not uncommon. In southern China, people sometimes get rashes, allergies, or other skin conditions with redness and swelling, and they will boil herbs in water to bathe.
After some treatments are found, taking a bath with herbal decoctions can alleviate the symptoms and reduce the redness and swelling of the skin.
However, that kind of "medicinal bath" is a bit rough; it mostly involves wiping the body with medicinal solution.
After all, since the rash is on the skin, applying the medicine to the red and swollen skin can directly reduce the swelling and relieve the itching.
Her medicinal bath is meant to regulate the body's internal systems, which requires soaking in medicinal water.
"Mom, I heard that medicinal baths can cleanse the muscles and marrow, but will it be very painful?"
"That transformative effect will make your bones feel like they've been broken and reassembled..."
"Smack!"
Chen Suwen, unable to bear it any longer, slapped him hard on the back.
"Break your bones and set them up? If you want to experience that, I can break your bones right now and then set them up for you. You'll just need to rest for a while."
What do you think?
"If you feel that simply breaking a bone isn't enough for you, I can let you experience what a comminuted fracture feels like."
Would you like to try it?
Although Chen Suwen's tone was very calm, Zhou Cunzong could hear the strong threat in his mother's voice, and he quickly shook his head to indicate that he did not need it.
"No, no, I don't have any masochistic tendencies, so I won't experience it."
Zhou Cunzong placed the bath tub in the tub and quickly poured water from the pot into it.
Chen Suwen looked at the others and said, "It takes a long time to boil a pot of medicine, so let the third brother and the eldest brother soak in it today."
"Let Lexin and the other two little girls go for a soak tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow it'll be you guys."
Chen Suwen said the last half of the sentence to his two daughters-in-law and a woman.
"What about you and Dad, Mom?"
Chen Su asked, "Of course your dad and I will go for a soak tomorrow."
"You two will try it today. I'll see how it goes, and then I'll think about whether to adjust the formula."
"Mom, is this really reliable?"
Chen Suwen glared at her talkative youngest son, "How is he unreliable?"
“Your maternal grandmother came from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. She was a maidservant to that young lady and learned from her from a young age.”
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