Prayers and Lord Bean’s Little Follower

"Zed still has a kind side to him," Serena Feng remarked with feeling.

With Zed's intelligence, escaping quietly from those traffickers would have been no challenge at all. But he chose not to do so.

He knew that acting would expose his whereabouts, but to save those children, he still chose to kill the traffickers, drawing officials to rescue them.

"Kindness? Maybe," Ninth Royal Uncle replied noncommittally.

He had never seen a trace of kindness in Zed's eyes. Still, Zed's actions were a case of fighting violence with violence. The methods were cruel, but if he had to be ruthless, Ninth Royal Uncle would rather Zed direct that cruelty toward villains like these.

Like Serena Feng, Ninth Royal Uncle loathed those who trafficked children.

Doing evil was one thing, but preying on innocent children was inhuman. Anyone like that who fell into his hands would never meet a good end.

With the plan set, Serena Feng and Ninth Royal Uncle prepared to leave the city to search for Zed. Since it wasn't an official mission, Nolan didn't need to bring his personal guards—just a handful of shadow guards for covert protection.

Besides the shadow guards, Zuo An was indispensable. Once outside the capital, there was no telling if they'd encounter assassins. For safety, bringing Zuo An was a must. But...

Right before departure, someone leaked the news, and somehow Lord Bean found out Serena Feng was going to look for Zed.

When Lord Bean heard about it, he clung to Serena Feng shamelessly, insisting on following her no matter what, claiming he wanted to find Zed and take revenge.

Lord Bean’s recovery was impressive—his wounds were almost healed, even the injury to his groin from Serena’s kick was showing signs of life. A few more rounds of medicine and he’d be back to his old self, ready to chase after courtesans as much as he liked. Going out of the city with Serena posed no real danger to him.

Nolan had heard from Serena that Lord Bean’s personality was unusual, but hadn’t thought much of it. Seeing it firsthand now, he was left speechless, a dark line appearing across his face.

What kind of person was this? Didn’t he know shame? He was no spring chicken, yet acted like a child. Even Zed didn’t throw tantrums like this—Dorian Owen was even more childish than Zed.

Still, annoyance aside, the fact remained: Lord Bean’s background was too powerful. If you were unhappy with him, you could beat him up, but whatever you did, you absolutely couldn’t kill him.

As for Nolan... Well, although he truly wanted to give Lord Bean a good beating, his pride wouldn’t let him lay hands on someone injured who refused to fight back.

Lord Bean seemed to have Nolan figured out. If Nolan tried to hit him, he’d never fight back—he’d just roll on the ground and wail that Nolan was bullying him, making it impossible for Nolan to actually do anything.

Nolan honestly wondered how those old monsters from the Assassin Alliance managed to raise such a bizarre heir. You couldn’t hit him, and you couldn’t not hit him—he was a walking headache.

No one could match Lord Bean when it came to being clingy. Serena and Nolan were helpless against him. Plus, as Zuo An pointed out, with Lord Bean around, no assassin would dare touch Serena. After some thought, Nolan and Serena decided to take him along.

Lord Bean might be a handful, but the advantages he brought were obvious. With the assassins kept at bay, their journey would be much smoother.

With Lord Bean tagging along, Zuo An didn’t need to come with them. Serena left Zuo An behind to protect Simon Sun, and Zuo An had no objections.

As a tech nerd, Zuo An hated running around outside. Tagging along with Serena meant he had no time for his experiments.

Lord Bean was the opposite—he couldn’t sit still. Wherever there was fun, he’d chase after it. With him following Serena, everyone was happy. At least, Zuo An was.

The three of them left the city gates before dawn, heading straight for the site of Zed’s last crime.

But when they reached that county, news came that Zed had already struck again in another county, with the same brutal, bloody methods.

“Never thought that kid would turn out to be a champion of justice.” Lord Bean’s injuries were mostly healed, but after several days on horseback, a few deep wounds had split open again, leaving him pale and sickly.

Still, he was stubborn. All day long he joked and laughed, never once admitting to pain.

Serena had watched coldly for days. Thinking about Lord Bean’s value as a human shield, she just couldn’t bring herself to harden her heart. On the fifth day out, she finally gave in, grabbed medicine and bandages, and went to find him.

“Take off your clothes.” Just thinking about treating Lord Bean’s wounds made Serena feel awkward.

After all, every one of those wounds was from trying to kill her. And now she had to bandage him up? How saintly was she supposed to be?

But... she really couldn’t just watch him suffer and pretend nothing was wrong.

Lord Bean was honestly a heartless guy. If you took him seriously, you’d only drive yourself crazy. So Serena decided to let bygones be bygones and forget the last assassination attempt.

It took Serena half a day to psych herself up and forgive Lord Bean for trying to kill her. But instead of being grateful, he just looked terrified, clutching his chest and stammering, “Ser-Serena, wh-what are you doing? Don’t you dare! I’ll scream for help!”

Serena rolled her eyes, put the tray by the bed, pulled up a chair, and sat down. "Go ahead and scream. Scream yourself hoarse. No one’s coming to save you. Hurry up and strip—I don’t have time for your nonsense."

Like she actually wanted to be here.

"No way." Lord Bean was all shy and bashful, like some delicate maiden. He wasn’t faking it, either.

For all his bluster and thick skin, Lord Bean was weirdly innocent about this stuff. He’d never dealt with girls, let alone undressed in front of one.

"Stop messing around, Lord Bean. Take off your shirt. Your wounds have split open again. If you don’t get fresh medicine, it’ll just get worse." Serena coaxed him as gently as she could.

Lord Bean was the kind who’d yield to kindness but not force. His moods were unpredictable.

"Just leave the medicine. I’ll do it myself." No matter what, Lord Bean refused to undress in front of Serena. She finally lost patience and went in herself: "If you could do it yourself, why would you need a doctor?"

"No, no, Serena, I’m begging you, let me go!" Lord Bean clung to his clothes and dodged frantically. He knew Serena had no martial arts, and didn’t dare push her away for fear of hurting her.

"Let you go? If I let you go, who’s letting me go? Hurry up—I don’t want you delaying our trip." With Lord Bean like this, Serena honestly couldn’t see him as a man. Wrestling with him didn’t bother her at all.

Serena was determined to strip Lord Bean and treat his wounds, so he wouldn’t get worse halfway through the journey. But he was just as determined not to undress in front of her.

In the tug-of-war, Serena ended up half-kneeling on the bed, trying to drag Lord Bean out of his clothes. Their noisy scuffle quickly drew Nolan from the next room.

"What are you two doing?" Nolan stood in the doorway, face dark as thunder...