The Guardian's Return (Ethan Rivers) novel Chapter 489

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 received hundreds of thousands of compensation, didn’t you?”

The old man’s head still hung low. “I only received two grand.”

“What?” Stephen was stunned. Two grand? He had allocated billions, but the people who needed the help only received two grand?

“How big is your land?”

“Twenty acres.”

“You only received two grand for twenty acres of land? Are you lying to me?”

The old man finally looked at him. “I’m not.”