This time, he truly experienced the ferocity of African mosquitoes, which were like fighter jets—biting hard and viciously, and spreading all kinds of diseases.

In the morning, he ate a meal of local cassava and beans in a shabby shed at the mining site. After watching the locals mine for gold, he suddenly developed a high fever in the afternoon.

Edward Baker suspected he had contracted the African malaria that the locals called "malari."

There was a Chinese clinic near the Degulamo branch office. If the vaccines taken before going abroad failed and one caught African malaria, it was usually effective to get a few injections at the clinic.

Edward Baker was thinking of hurrying back to Iboku Village. John Foster and Walter Baker drove him through the night to Degulamo City for treatment, but unexpectedly, not long after leaving the mining shed, he was bitten by a palm-sized venomous snake that darted out from deep in the jungle.

He lost consciousness immediately. He vaguely remembered having some nightmares, but when he regained awareness, he was already lying in the chief’s house in Iboku Village.

Where is John Foster?

Other than the old chief excitedly talking to Walter Baker, Edward Baker didn’t see his direct supervisor at the branch, John Foster, come in.

Edward Baker had studied Yoruba with Walter Baker for a few months, but could only manage some simple daily conversations.

The chief spoke to Walter Baker rapidly and urgently, leaving him completely confused, unable to understand what they were saying for quite a while.

Seeing the confusion in Edward Baker’s eyes, Walter Baker translated in English: “Chief Felician says their tribe hasn’t seen the Iboku spirit snake for many years. Before you, the only person to survive a bite from the spirit snake was the great shaman who led the tribe to settle and survive on this land two hundred years ago. The great shaman had the ability to see into people’s hearts. Before he died, he left a prophecy: if anyone in the tribe is bitten by the Iboku spirit snake and survives, they too will have the ability to see into people’s hearts, just like him!”

Nonsense! That palm-sized snake, painted in green rings, is a spirit snake?

Hearing Walter Baker relay Chief Felician’s words, Edward Baker just wanted to roll his eyes.

The Yoruba are the third largest ethnic group in Kanem, mainly distributed in the northwestern states of Oyo and Ogun, with a total population of over thirty million nationwide.

Over four hundred years of colonial history had made Christianity from Europe and America extremely widespread locally. Most Yoruba people are now Christians, but some Yoruba tribes still maintain their original religious beliefs.

From Walter Baker’s words, Iboku Village not only preserved its pre-colonial traditional religion, but also regarded the venomous snake that bit him as a totem of faith.

What utter nonsense.

Still, Edward Baker reminded himself that he was on someone else’s turf and didn’t want to get a beating from the locals. No matter how much he disdained it in his heart, it was best to keep his mouth shut.

Since he had managed to wake up and wasn’t dead yet, he wanted Walter Baker to quickly find John Foster, then drive him back to Degulamo for treatment.

He was afraid that if the malignant malaria in his body, or the snake venom temporarily suppressed by his immune system, flared up again, he might really die here.

“Mr. Foster…” Edward Baker opened his mouth, wanting to ask where John Foster was. Even he could hear how weak his own voice sounded.

“Mr. Foster thought you weren’t going to make it, so he drove back to Degulamo first. He said he’d report to General Manager Yang at the company and then rush back to help handle your affairs!” Walter Baker said with a troubled expression.

Hearing this, Edward Baker almost jumped out of bed: That bastard John Foster thought he was dead and went back to Degulamo by himself?

Chapter Two: The Girl

“This is the herbal medicine I’m supposed to drink?”

Lily Clark was the granddaughter of Chief Felician, a fifteen-year-old Yoruba girl.

Lily Clark was definitely considered a little beauty locally.

At a young age, she already had a well-developed, tall figure. She wore a locally made striped cotton dress, her chest was perky, her waist slender, making her look especially upright and graceful.

After working for over a year at the Degulamo branch office in Kanem, Edward Baker noticed that the local young women all had particularly upright figures. He suspected it was because local women, no matter how heavy the load, were used to carrying things on their heads.

The girl Lily Clark had large, bright amber eyes, delicate features, and a straight nose.

Perhaps due to the hot climate, even women rarely had long hair, and they liked to use a local red clay to twist their hair into strands; but Lily Clark had slightly curly, dark brown long hair, shiny like a waterfall. Beneath her straight nose, she didn’t have the thick lips typical of Yoruba people, but rather a perfectly sensual mouth.

Unlike the locals’ dark skin, Lily Clark had light brown skin, which was because her mother was Italian, giving her half Italian blood.

A girl like Lily Clark still didn’t quite fit Edward Baker’s aesthetic.

In Edward Baker’s eyes, Lily Clark’s other qualities would all score above ninety, but her skin color brought it down to seventy; he still preferred girls with fair, smooth skin.

However, at this moment, his eyes were fixed on the bowl of thick green, oddly smelling herbal soup in Lily Clark’s hands.

Lily Clark handed the bowl over, and the smell became even more pungent.

Although her expressive, bright eyes were pure and lively, Edward Baker really suspected she was about to say, “Darling, drink this bowl of arsenic and you’ll be cured…”