Of course, Xiaoyao figured that leaving one question blank wouldn't attract attention either, because this question was quite difficult. It seemed to be a question Princess Wen Ya deliberately used to make things difficult for people, not many people in the entire world would know the answer.
Of course, he believed Li Cheng would also write an answer, but this answer definitely wouldn't be completely correct. However, it would earn some points, and with that, he would definitely score a bit better than Xiaoyao.
There might be other talented people who could also score a bit better than Xiaoyao. Xiaoyao had considered this possibility, but there wouldn't be many such people, and it definitely wouldn't eliminate him from the competition.
According to Xiaoyao's estimation, his score should be in the middle tier among those who passed, not too good, not too bad, so it wouldn't attract anyone's attention.
This was the perfect result, exactly what he wanted.
Because of this, after finishing the exam, Xiaoyao immediately left his seat, carrying Chi Chi to look for food. He knew that at this time, the Bai Yue Kingdom's royal palace would have prepared food waiting for everyone to finish the exam. It was almost noon, the palace couldn't possibly not prepare food.
Xiaoyao's departure attracted everyone's attention, because at this time, everyone else was still working on the questions, still thinking, but Xiaoyao had left.
At this moment, almost everyone thought that Xiaoyao must have given up, because he couldn't answer these questions, so he simply left.
...
...
Because of this assumption, almost no one paid attention to Xiaoyao's departure. He was just an ignorant person who had gotten here through some shameless methods, why would they care about him? They needed to focus on their remaining opponents.
"I knew it. After this competition, he would be finished. I didn't expect he'd have some self-awareness and directly give up and leave," Princess Wen Ya thought to herself at this moment.
After going outside, Xiaoyao immediately looked for food and asked to eat!
"Please follow me," When Xiaoyao said he wanted to eat, a maid waiting outside immediately led him to the dining area. There was an abundance of food here, and Chi Chi's eyes lit up with divine light.
"Please help yourself," the maid said to Xiaoyao, then prepared to leave.
"Can I really help myself?" Xiaoyao asked, pointing at the food with a very serious expression.
"Yes, please help yourself," The maid smiled. She seemed to think that this little commoner Xiaoyao might not have eaten such good food before, so he was being a bit timid.
"Sister maid, it's okay if I eat quite a lot?" Xiaoyao asked.
"It's fine, eat as much as you want. No matter how much you eat, it's okay," The maid smiled again. She thought Xiaoyao was very cute, how much could eating a bit more matter? There was so much food here. How much could one person possibly eat?
Xiaoyao calling her "sister maid" made her feel quite pleased, and her favorable impression of Xiaoyao increased a level!
"Then thank you," Xiaoyao expressed his gratitude.
"You're welcome!" the maid replied. "I'll go over there to continue waiting for others. You can eat slowly here."
Since Xiaoyao was the first to arrive, and had come so much earlier, others wouldn't finish their test papers for at least another half hour. Therefore, at this time, there was no one else here!
In other words, no one would stop Xiaoyao from doing whatever he wanted here!
Hehe, let's begin.
"Chi Chi, eat this, it tastes pretty good..."
"Damn, you little glutton, don't eat it all at once, I want to taste it too..."
On the other side, in the great hall, almost everyone participating in the marriage competition was seriously taking the exam until the very end. Even if they finished the questions, they would check over and over again, hoping to achieve shocking results that would make them famous and earn the princess's appreciation.
They would never leave early like Xiaoyao. This was their chance to change their lives, how could they miss it?
Because of this, they only left an hour after Xiaoyao departed, when time was up. Afterward, the king said a few polite words about their hard work, then had people take them to eat first. Their test papers would be reviewed immediately, and the scores would determine which group passed.
Princess Wen Ya had already given the answer key to others, so she didn't personally review the test papers. She let others grade them and determine the final scores. As for herself, she had important things to do, following her future husband, well, this group of husband candidates.
She wanted to see how this group performed at the dining table. Sometimes, you could tell a person's character by watching them eat. Also, since they had just finished the exam, this should be when they were most relaxed, showing their most genuine personalities.
What she didn't expect was to witness a farce, involving a person who gave her quite a headache. This was something she could never have imagined, nor could anyone else.
Who could have imagined that food prepared for over a hundred people would be completely consumed, with only one person present, plus one small monster beast?
What... what was going on here?
"..." Everyone fell silent. All eyes focused on Xiaoyao, who was sitting comfortably to one side, and Chi Chi, who was lying on the table with a bulging belly.
You... you couldn't have eaten the food for over a hundred people, could you?
"Ah, what's going on here, little brother?" the maid from before asked Xiaoyao. She looked at the tables that had been full of food before, now completely empty, not even crumbs remained.
Indeed, not even crumbs remained, which others also noticed. If someone had eaten all the food here, there should at least be food scraps. It was too clean here, it didn't quite look like it had been eaten...
"What do you mean 'what's going on'?" Xiaoyao didn't understand what the maid was asking about.
"Where's the food from here?" the maid asked for clarification.
"Oh, we ate it all. It was delicious. I'm so full!" Xiaoyao answered, giving two evaluations.
"What? You ate it all?" The maid stared wide-eyed at Xiaoyao, somewhat unable to believe it, no, not somewhat, but completely unable to believe it.
"Impossible! You're just one person and one small thing. How could you possibly eat food for over a hundred people? And even if you did eat it all, it couldn't be this clean. There were quite a few ribs, shrimp, crabs and such here. You couldn't have even eaten the scraps," The maid shook her head, refusing to believe Xiaoyao's "tall tale."
"Well, this little glutton doesn't spit out bones when eating, it eats everything," Xiaoyao pointed at the lying Chi Chi, whose bulging belly showed that it was a little bit full, just a little bit.
"Impossible! How could this be possible?"
"What's impossible about it? My little glutton is very good at eating. Even if you brought food for another hundred people, it could still eat it all right now. Hehe, thanks for the hospitality," Xiaoyao said with a laugh, bowing in courtesy.
At this moment, the maid suddenly remembered that when Xiaoyao had asked if he could really help himself, he had meant this, not what she had imagined.
What should she do now? She'd better prepare new food first. Regardless of everything else, she couldn't let the others wait here.
The maid felt somewhat helpless and immediately went to prepare new food. Fortunately, the palace had many people and was quite efficient. Although it wouldn't be as abundant as before, they could prepare and serve food continuously, allowing people to eat something first.
However, they would need to wait a while before that, as this time was necessary. Therefore, the maid needed to apologize to everyone here.
"Sorry everyone, we've had a small situation. Please wait here for a moment, we'll serve new food right away. We're truly sorry," The maid bowed and apologized.
"We understand. This isn't your fault. The fault lies with someone who eats too much and doesn't know any manners," At this moment, Young Master Dong looked at Xiaoyao with great disdain, and his words stirred up many people's resentment toward Xiaoyao.
Yes, they could have eaten immediately, but someone had eaten everything.
"Young Prince, you're really impressive! Eating so much all by yourself..." Li Cheng sat down next to Xiaoyao while waiting. He seemed to be the only one who sat beside Xiaoyao, the others didn't want to share a table with him.
No wonder they didn't want to. They all thought Xiaoyao was just a commoner, how could they know what status Xiaoyao actually represented? If they knew, there would naturally be some people around Xiaoyao wanting to make connections.
However, Li Cheng sitting with Xiaoyao attracted everyone's attention. No one seemed to have expected Li Cheng to sit with Xiaoyao. Also, Li Cheng seemed to call Xiaoyao "Young Prince" again, which made people curious about Xiaoyao's identity.
Li Cheng sat with Xiaoyao because he felt it would be more comfortable sitting with him. If he sat with others, they would more or less try to curry favor with him, but this dissolute Young Prince Xiaoyao wouldn't.
It wasn't that Li Cheng disliked social interaction, but he didn't like these people at the scene who had no particular status. He felt no one here was worth befriending, so he might as well befriend this dissolute Young Prince Xiaoyao - perhaps he'd be useful in the future.
Though he was a bit dissolute, perhaps it was because he had the capital to be dissolute!
"I only ate a portion, the vast majority was eaten by my little glutton. It's just a glutton," Xiaoyao said with a laugh. At this moment, Chi Chi made an effort to move its body and called out "Chi Chi" in protest.
(End of Chapter)