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

hundreds of thousands of compensation,

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

was stunned. Two grand? He had

needed the help only received two

big is your

"Twenty acres."

only received two grand for twenty acres of land? Are

finally looked

to work in other cities and gave up on their orchards if they only

"How much

old man said, "For three

years?" Stephen was shocked. That

had not trusted Nico and doubted Julius back

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

say a word. He stood up and left. Although they

man only receive

the company dare to lease an acre of land for

could not help but wonder how Ethan managed to achieve