Standing on the goblin’s shoulders, he finally saw the Fountain of Life. The spring water was emerald green, and upon seeing it, he couldn’t help but think of the bamboo leaf liquor he’d once tasted.

The Fountain of Life only appeared for a short time, and there was very little water inside, just a small amount accumulated at the spring’s source.

This left him frustrated—what about the big drink he’d been promised?

When he bought fruit earlier, he’d also picked up a water cup, planning to scoop up the spring water and gulp it down.

But now it was clear he’d been too optimistic. There wasn’t enough water to fill a cup, and even a spoon couldn’t scoop it up.

With no other choice, he could only dip his finger into the spring and dab it onto his lips, just like a bear eating honey.

Occasionally, when he looked down, he saw Nate hugging a bunch of bananas, gazing up at him with longing eyes.

Samuel Young said, “What are you looking at? Eat your breakfast. I’m standing on your shoulders, not your hands.”

After taking a bite of banana with the peel on, Nate looked aggrieved and said, “But, Lord Mayor, this doesn’t taste good.”

Samuel Young replied helplessly, “Haven’t you ever eaten a banana? Of course it doesn’t taste good with the peel on. Here, peel it and eat it. Now, does it taste better?”

Nate peeled the banana, took a bite, and then, with a miserable face, said, “It still doesn’t taste good.”

That’s to be expected. Samuel Young shrugged, indicating there was nothing he could do.

There are plenty of bananas in Africa, but the most common ones in South Africa are different from the fruit bananas produced in Southeast Asia. The local bananas have a higher starch content and are less sweet. They can be steamed or boiled as a staple food, and can even be used to make wine. They’re quite versatile, just not suitable as fruit.

Considering that he’d need the goblin to watch over the Tree of Life while he went to buy land today, Samuel Young felt he had to make sure the goblin was well fed. Otherwise, with his small frame, he might not be able to handle the golden lion tamarin family.

So, he reluctantly let the goblin dip the banana in the Fountain of Life to eat.

Watching the goblin happily eat breakfast, Samuel Young reminded him, “You stay here today, don’t wander around, especially don’t go near the road, understand? If someone sees you like this, you’ll either end up in a zoo or on an operating table being dissected.”

As the elven lord, he did know polymorph spells among his arcane arts, which could change the goblin’s appearance or alter the form of the Tree of Life. But he’d absorbed too little of the Fountain of Life, so his magical power was still insufficient to cast polymorph.

Chapter 6: Trading Diamonds for Land

After settling Nate, he returned to the resort town. At this time, an old Land Rover was parked in front of the MeiMeiDa Fast Food Restaurant. When he walked in, Mason greeted him enthusiastically, “Hey, Yang, you’re here early.”

Standing next to him was a tall, thin, middle-aged white man—this was Mason’s brother-in-law.

The white man politely extended his hand and said, “Hello, Mr. Yang, I’m Walker, Walker Hall, a sales representative in the bulk land transactions division of the Independent Group. Pleased to meet you.”

Seeing the two shake hands, Mason said happily, “You two chat, I’ll go make you some coffee.”

There wasn’t much to discuss. Hall said the price for the thousand acres of land was two million rand. Since it was a deal with the government, there was no room for negotiation.

Samuel Young could accept the price, but he didn’t have the cash—he only had about a hundred thousand rand in his safe.

But he did have diamonds.

He had exactly twenty diamonds from the safe—not too many, not too few. The two largest were bigger than broad beans, and even the smallest was larger than a soybean. All were cut and finished stones.

Not wanting to arouse suspicion, Samuel Young showed one diamond and said, “I don’t have that much cash. I’ll need to sell some diamonds to get the money for the land.”

Hall asked cautiously, “Do the diamonds have certificates?”

Samuel Young shook his head. “No. You can treat them as blood diamonds. Can you handle them?”

Blood diamonds don’t literally mean diamonds with blood on them, but rather diamonds of unknown origin or mined from war zones. Such diamonds are often associated with violence from mining to trading, hence the name.

Hall frowned and thought for a moment before saying, “We can handle it. Our group can buy them, but the price probably won’t be as high as you expect—at most sixty percent of the market price.”

Samuel Young breathed a sigh of relief. That price wasn’t bad. When he worked at the Cape Plant Reserve, he’d heard from local colleagues that black market diamonds usually fetched only half the market price.

Also, the “market price” here referred to the price of loose diamonds, not the retail price in stores—the difference was huge.

Once the discussion was nearly finished, Hall decided to set off immediately. Mason asked, “Not staying for another cup of coffee?”

While putting on his suit, Hall said, “No, Richard, we need to hurry to Pietermaritzburg. I want to get the main part of the transaction done today.”

They were currently in KwaZulu-Natal Province, the northeasternmost province of South Africa. Pietermaritzburg is one of the provincial capitals. The reason it’s “one of” is because this province unusually has two capitals, which alternate between Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi.

But considering that South Africa as a country has three capitals, it’s not hard to understand why a province would have two.