[BL] The Ice Prince and his Fairy

Lessons

"He wouldn't-" Xander started but held his tongue. While he wanted to think of his father as a kind man, the situation was more complicated than that. His father was a powerful man, in need of strong heirs.

Perhaps the two of them just weren't good enough in his eyes.

Seeing the tears forming in the boy's eyes, Qin Rong felt a bit guilty for saying all that. He wasn't sure why but he kept on forgetting that he was talking to a child. He was getting way too comfortable with this kid.

Still, he couldn't leave the child crying.

"Hey now, there's no need to be so glum about that." He tried, awkwardly patting Xander on the shoulder. "So your dad's a jerk. Such is life, right? Adults are only human. Some are good and most are terrible. Just be glad you got to figure this out before you got a knife in the back."

"One of father's wives died that way too." Xander sniffled, wiping his face before any tears fell. He'd made a promise, he couldn't break it now.

Qin Rong was too shocked by Xander's statement to even notice the near breach in their contract.

"W-with a knife to the back or poison?"

"Both maybe?"

How could it be both!? He thought, trying to understand how that would work. As if reading his thoughts, Xander continued.

"The guards said she got sick and fell onto her letter opener." He explained, recalling the incident fairly well. It had been noisy that morning and the servants kept whispering about it. He was young and only had a passing interest in it.

Meanwhile, the mercenary was reeling from shock, trying to come to terms with how casually this kid spoke about such a thing. He was a mercenary, so death and backbiting were just a part of the day to day life but this kid spoke like it was nothing.

Like holy shit, what kind of life was this kid living when such obvious backstabbing was happening?! Was that why this kid was being poisoned?

Wait, then why wasn't Xiao Xan sick too?

"Have you eaten the same stuff as your brother?" He asked, looking him over. He hadn't bothered to check Xander before since the kid was showing no overt symptoms of poisoning. Xander nodded as Qin Rong checked him out. "You have been but aren't showing any symptoms. You already have an immunity?"

"What's that?" He asked. After having listened to the explanation, he recalled his mother talking about something similar. "Oh, like when I used to get sick before. Sometimes Mama would give me these bitter pills. They always made me sick but mama said it would make me stronger later. I really didn't get it."

"Wow, smart woman." Qin Rong marveled, greatly impressed. She had given her kid enough poison to immunize him to most poisons before he even knew what going on. He had to talk to this lady later. "Do you have any of those pills on you or the recipe?"

Xander shook his head.

"They're back home. I hid them under my bed so mother wouldn't find them."

"Why hide them?" He frowned at the change of address.

"Mother doesn't like me reading stuff mama left behind."

More confusion.

"So this mother is...?"

"Fathers wife."

"And mama?"

"My and Nik's mama." He explained, happy to talk about her. Qin Rong, however, was confused.