Chapter 95 Charles's Merit
The drizzle could not stop the serfs from working. In the small pond near the manor's courtyard, the fisherman Pork Ribs Jimmy plunged into the pond and groped underwater.
After a moment, he knocked on the door of the manor's courtyard with a frustrated look.
Russell met him in the living room: "What's the matter?"
"Master, I have some unfortunate news to report to you. The river clams raised in the pond are dying one after another." Jimmy Pai Ribs said in frustration, "In the past few days when you went to fight in the snowfield, I found river clams. died."
Then today he went to the pond to observe again and found that there were more dead mussels: "It was all ulcers from the wounds that caused the mussels to die... It was just a small hole in the membrane, why did the wounds fester, sir?"
"The wound is fester?" Russell frowned.
Then Jimmy Pai Gu showed him a few dead river mussels. When he opened the clam shells, he could clearly see inside that the mantle, which was originally embedded with sand, was indeed rotten in large areas.
The rotten wound exuded a fishy smell.
Russell pinched his nose and looked at the rotten river mussel carefully. He was a little confused: "I remember clearly that there was sand and other things in the river mussel. If it can't be excreted, it will secrete nacre and wrap the sand... "
Over time, a small pearl will form with the sand as the core.
Unexpectedly, these river clams died due to wound infection.
The pearl plan seems to have been aborted before it even started.
But Russell didn't believe in evil and frowned: "Jimmy Spare Ribs, throw away these clams and clean up all the dead clams in the pond. In addition, you go to catch two alive clams now. I want to see them." It depends.”
"Okay, sir." Jimmy Chops was shocked and was no longer as enthusiastic as before.
However, he quickly jumped into the pond and fished out a few alive river mussels for Russell. These river mussels were all on the small side.
Without waiting for the mussel to open its shell on its own, Russell directly asked Jimmy Pork Ribs to violently pry open the shell.
Then.
I saw that the wound where the sand was originally stuck has healed, but there seems to be no nacre secreted, it is just embedded in the flesh, and there is no sign of growing into a pearl.
Of course, it may also be due to the short time.
But no matter what, these river mussels are not dead and their wounds have healed, which means that it is possible to succeed in planting pearls.
"It may be that the large mussels grow slowly and the wounds cannot heal." Russell concluded, "Jimmy, go back and lead people to catch a batch of small mussels, repeat the previous steps, and plant them with sand."
"As you wish, Master!" When Jimmy Paigu heard that this job was still possible, he was as enthusiastic as a chicken.
He cherishes his job as a fisherman.
In the evening, Charles held an oil-paper umbrella and came over to report territorial affairs to Russell, and also looked for a chance to have a meal.
"The mill is already being debugged, sir. It will be officially put into operation in a few days. By then, the serfs in the territory will be able to grind flour nearby, and the manor will also have a profit." Charles first reported the good news.
Then he rambled on about other things.
The pottery jars and wooden barrels ordered from the Fluorescent Castle have been ordered, the land for the compost site and septic tank has also been leveled, and the official dormitories in the small market are also being planned... There are always a lot of chores in the territory.
"Very well, well managed." Russell asked Charles to have dinner with him.
While eating and chatting, we soon got to talking about the dead river mussels in the pond. Russell's expectations for the pearl project were still very high.
"Sir, do you think river oysters can really grow pearls artificially? It seems a bit incredible..." Unconsciously, when Charles faced Russell, he no longer used "you" and began to use the honorific "you" all the time. .
He glanced out the window, as if he was carrying something, and whispered: "If you succeed, this is equivalent to a two-legged dragon's method... No matter how generous the Grand Duke's dragon is, he probably won't look at it. come on?"
Strictly speaking, this is indeed stealing the dragon's authority.
After all, all the magical creations in the Shadow Flame Grand Duchy are based on the Shadow Flame Dragon. Whether they are picked up or given as gifts, they are all generated by the power of the Shadow Flame Dragon.
Russell raises his own pearls, which seems to have nothing to do with the Shadowflame Dragon, but in fact he is still gathering the Shadowflame Dragon's wool.
"But no matter how much you say, cultured pearls cannot be compared with the output of mineral veins. I believe that the Shadow Flame Dragon will not be so stingy." Russell said, then shook his head, "Besides, it may not be successful. It seems that planting sand grains cannot Cause a reaction in the river clam."
"Pearls are magic creations. It's definitely not that simple. Sir, I think it's too difficult to turn ordinary sand into pearls." Charles took a bite of bacon and said casually, "Maybe you can try something more valuable. , such as gemstones?"
"Huh!"
Russell was immediately surprised: "Charles, what you said seems to make sense... Ordinary sand is too ordinary!"
In pearl cultivation on earth, pearls are just ordinary things.
The pearls he wants to cultivate now are magical creations. If pearls can be grown using only ordinary sand, it would be a bit unbelievable.
But if the same magical creation is used as the introduction, it seems to be barely reasonable.
"I just said casually, sir, there is no guarantee of success." Charles shrugged. He was not optimistic about the success of pearl farming.
But Russell smiled and said: "Whether it succeeds or not, let the Grand Duke's dragon make the decision. But if you really succeed with this method, I will credit you!"
"Ah." Charles said happily, "Sir, you will definitely succeed!"
After Charles left, Russell was still thinking about the issues of pearl cultivation at night, one was the mortality rate of river mussels, and the other was the selection of pearl nuclei.
The mortality rate is high, so we can only slowly improve the technology and select river mussels with high tolerance and strong resilience.
As for the pearl core.
Russell also had to slowly experiment: "Gemstone chips are one option, and another option, maybe clay particles can also be used?"
Speaking of magical creations, there is not much in the Netherlight Valley, except for the abundant clay mineral production.
Moreover, compared to hard gemstone fragments, clay particles are softer and easier to absorb, and may be more suitable as pearl nuclei.
"Try them all. Don't worry about the production of pearls. Let's find out the most suitable technology for cultivating pearls first." Russell wrote and drew on paper to organize his thoughts. "It's not just gem chips and clay particles. Others such as metals, magic materials, and the bones and dregs of fantasy beasts..."
Write and write.
He suddenly thought of something else: "Although I ate the meat of the river mussels that produced magic pearls that day, the shells of the river mussels are still there. Maybe they can be minced. What about using the mussel shells as pearl cores? They all belong to the river mussels. Part of it should be easier to accept, right?”
Thinking of this, he recorded river clam shells as a candidate material for pearl cores and arranged for people to collect all the materials tomorrow.
Then leave it to Jimmy Chops to arrange river clams for experiments.
Stretching, Russell yawned: "That's it... there is nothing wrong with the idea. If it fails, it can only be attributed to the elusiveness of extraordinary power."