The Heiress Nobody Saw Coming

Chapter 677 Zachary's Question

After Natalie finished speaking, Lynette, Sue, and Ann exchanged glances. Then, all at once, they dropped to their knees in front of her.

"Ms. Natalie, thank you. Really... thank you so much," Lynette said.

"Don't say that. Go get ready. We're probably heading out this afternoon," Natalie said, quickly helping them back to their feet.

"We're about to grab something to eat. Want to come with us?" she added.

She and Marcus had just come back from foraging herbs in the mountains. They'd walked a lot, worked up a sweat, showered, changed clothes, and now they were starving.

The three girls nodded.

This place had no proper roads and no cars-wherever they needed to go anywhere, they had to walk.

When Natalie and her team had first come to build the school, they had hauled in most of the construction materials by mule. It had taken a ton of effort just to get Hope Elementary up and running.

The road out of the village was long and rough. They knew they'd need their strength for the journey, so there was no way they could leave without a good meal first.

Natalie and Marcus brought them to the school's cafeteria. There, Zachary and Sophia came over to join them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Holden, I just spoke with Sophia and got a better understanding of what's going on here. I have a question I'd like to ask Mrs. Holden," Zachary said as he led Sophia to sit across from them.

His expression turned serious as he continued, "The environment here is so harsh. The conditions are rough, and even the villagers aren't cooperative.

"Mrs. Holden, have you ever considered reaching out to higher authorities or government departments for help? I mean, wouldn't it be better to let official programs handle the poverty relief?"

"Zachary, we already know all that," Lynette suddenly said, raising her hand. "Ms. Natalie, can I explain?"

nodded. "Yeah,

began explaining to Zachary, her tone

Before Ms. Natalie came with her team, no one from our village had ever left. We didn't know anything about the outside

about our situation, she did reach

still in the mountains, they were ambushed by the village chief and his men. One of the officials

people were sent, none of them made it

bite the hand that feeds them. And they weren't about to risk their lives in

work something out. But the truth is, the county didn't have much money, and they didn't have the manpower or resources to help a group

stop her if she wanted

in the

started investigating, they'd be the ones to take the blame. But they said they'd already tried, and all it got them was injury after injury. They told Ms. Natalie that they were just regular people. They weren't willing to die for

and tried to interfere with our lives again, he'd send people to kill their families in the middle of the night and burn

people, and

finished speaking, Zachary's expression darkened instantly. He glanced at Sophia,

and friendly-smiling and pleasant while they ate at his house. But the

that were

mood, Lynette spoke

the beginning, she brought

them to dig herbs, plant fruit trees, and grow other crops. All the seeds and fertilizer were provided

up money and needs a lot of manpower, and in the end,

a blind eye to whatever she wanted to do. As far as they were concerned, this place

let out a long breath. After hearing Lynette's explanation, he

in peace. Risking their lives for a bunch of ungrateful

officials had tried. But all they got in

to the small town they'd passed through on the way here. It hadn't been well-off. In fact, it was still struggling

managing to develop that town would already be an accomplishment. How could they possibly

fix it, they chose to stay out of