The drizzling rain could not stop the serfs from working. In the small pond near the manor annex, the fish herder, Ribs Jimmy, dove straight into the water and began feeling around beneath the surface.
A moment later, he knocked on the manor annex's door with a dejected expression.
Russell received him in the sitting room. "What is it?"
"My lord, I have unfortunate news to report. The river mussels raised in the pond have been dying one after another." Ribs Jimmy said dejectedly, "I noticed some dead mussels during the days you were away fighting on the snowfield."
Then, when he checked the pond again today, he found even more dead mussels. "Their wounds have all festered, causing the mussels to die... We only made a small puncture in the mantle. How did the wounds fester, my lord?"
"The wounds festered?" Russell frowned.
Ribs Jimmy then showed him several dead mussels. When he opened their shells, it was indeed clear to see that the mantles where the grains of sand had been inserted had rotted away in large patches.
A fishy stench wafted from the rotten wounds.
Pinching his nose, Russell carefully examined the rotting mussels, unable to make sense of it. "I remember clearly that when sand or something similar gets into a mussel and it cannot expel it, it secretes nacre to wrap the grain of sand..."
Over time, it formed a small pearl around the grain of sand.
He had never expected these mussels to die from infected wounds.
The great pearl plan seemed to have died before it had even begun.
But Russell refused to accept it. Frowning, he said, "Ribs Jimmy, throw these mussels away and clear all the dead mussels from the pond. Also, catch two living mussels right now. I want to