The Guardian's Return by Old Pumpkin

His hair was gray, his face lined with wrinkles, and his clothes were tattered and shabby.

Stephen was stunned. "He's the culprit?"

The assistant nodded. "Yes."

Stephen took a deep breath. "Why did you set the fire?"

The old man trembled and stuttered, "I didn't do it on purpose."

Stephen's face was cold. "Even if it wasn't on purpose, you have to explain what's going on."

Hill City's mountains were ancient and were home to many precious plants and animals. The economic and environmental damage caused by this fire was immeasurable.

The old man lowered his head. "Our orchard was destroyed. The subsidies were too little, and our children all went to find work in other cities. Now, someone wants to lease our village land, so I wanted to expand it a bit."

Stephen understood. The orchard was destroyed, leaving them without a harvest. The youngsters went to work elsewhere as they thought the subsidy was too little. At this juncture, some companies wanted to lease the empty and idle land, so the old man tried to expand it to earn more money, accidentally leading to the forest fire.

He was so mad that he almost ground his teeth to dust. "Aren't you being greedy? I gave you so many subsidies, and you still think it's not enough? You must've

thousands of

man's head still hung low. "I only received two

Stephen was stunned. Two grand? He

the help only

big is your

"Twenty acres."

only received two grand for twenty acres of land? Are you

looked at him. “I'm

other cities and gave up on

asked, "How much is the company paying to lease an

old man said,

three years?" Stephen was shocked.

headache instead. In the end, it all traced back to his own failings. If he had not trusted Nico and doubted Julius back then, Hill City's agriculture

lot more that he wanted to say. Before entering the interrogation room, he had been

stood up and left.

receive two

to lease an acre of land for just two hundred over three

not help but wonder how Ethan managed to achieve