"It's fine, I'm not very hungry anyway. I was going to spend the whole day on this competition, and you didn't delay the competition, so why should I be angry with you?" Li Cheng didn't mind much. He had originally planned to spend today's time on the competition, and since Xiaoyao hadn't delayed the competition, there was no reason to be upset with him.
"That's true, we have to wait anyway. I wonder if the third round will be held this afternoon, the sooner it ends, the sooner we can rest." Xiaoyao said indifferently.
"Do you think you can pass the round we just had?" Li Cheng asked very directly.
"Yes!" Xiaoyao simply answered with one word, saying nothing else.
"You're very confident." Li Cheng was stunned for a moment, then smiled. "However, confidence alone doesn't accomplish much."
That's right, that's right, you're too confident. Do you think confidence alone will get you through? Princess Wen Ya, who was lurking nearby, thought to herself, very much agreeing with Li Cheng's statement.
"Then let the facts speak for themselves," Xiaoyao was too lazy to say anything else, as it was completely unnecessary.
"Then I shall wait and see," Li Cheng said with a smile.
...
...
Hmph! We'll see! Let's see how long you can be smug! Princess Wen Ya secretly said to herself.
"Huh?" Xiaoyao looked toward Princess Wen Ya's direction, which made Princess Wen Ya immediately hide, thinking to herself, could it be that I was discovered?
"What's wrong, Young Prince?" Li Cheng asked curiously.
"Strange, I felt like someone was watching me just now. Never mind, I'm so handsome and dashing, it's only natural that people would look at me," Xiaoyao waved his hand dismissively...
Xiaoyao's words immediately made both the visible and hidden persons break out in cold sweat.
Li Cheng thought Xiaoyao was too narcissistic, while Princess Wen Ya wondered if it was just a coincidence.
Soon, the palace began serving dishes, allowing these nearly hundred people to eat. The dishes came one after another, and the pace wasn't slow, at least it could keep up with their eating speed.
"You can still eat..." Li Cheng looked at Xiaoyao, somewhat dazed.
"It's fine. Not eating would be wasteful, and I don't like waste," Xiaoyao smiled. At this moment, only he and Li Cheng were at this table, so naturally he should eat a bit. He was also feeding Chi Chi at the same time.
He had to feed Chi Chi and not let it eat by itself, because if he did that, he and Li Cheng wouldn't get to eat anything.
Although Xiaoyao's manner was somewhat dissolute, eating while feeding his pet, both his actions and speech carried noble etiquette. Those who noticed understood that Xiaoyao might not be an ordinary commoner.
If he were an ordinary commoner, how could he have such etiquette? This couldn't be faked, Xiaoyao's was a temperament that emanated from within.
Many people were confused, not understanding what kind of person Xiaoyao was.
But who could have imagined that Xiaoyao was indeed acting? He was playing the role of a dissolute Young Prince. When he wanted to impersonate someone, no one could see through any flaws, he had the temperament when temperament was needed, the manners when manners were needed, and the professionalism when professionalism was needed.
"Your Highness Princess, the King wants to see you."
After secretly observing for a while, Princess Wen Ya was called away by a maid. Princess Wen Ya knew what this was about, the results must be out, and it was time to decide who should leave.
At this moment, what Princess Wen Ya cared about most wasn't who got the highest score, but Xiaoyao's score. However, when she arrived, she discovered that to know Xiaoyao's score, she needed one very simple piece of information, what was Xiaoyao's name.
From beginning to end, Princess Wen Ya had never known what Xiaoyao's name was.
"Father, are the results out? Why do you have such a strange expression?" After entering the great hall, Princess Wen Ya saw the King in the center. The King had a strange expression on his face, and like the King, others also looked somewhat odd.
"See for yourself, and you'll understand," The King looked at Princess Wen Ya, still wearing that strange expression.
"What? Did someone perform unexpectedly well? No, if that were the case, you shouldn't have this kind of expression. Could it be that someone did very poorly? But that would be normal..." Princess Wen Ya said as she went to check the results. Soon, she understood the reason for the King's and others' strange expressions.
"Young Prince? What Young Prince? Did someone sign their test paper as 'Young Prince'?"
Princess Wen Ya finally understood a bit of why this was happening, someone had actually signed their name as "Young Prince." What was this supposed to mean? But this didn't seem worth being strange about either. It could be some country's Young Prince.
"Are you thinking it might be some country's Young Prince? I thought the same thing initially, but then I checked the registration list, and there really is someone called Young Prince. He says his surname is 'Young' and his given name is 'Prince'... This name is too... domineering... Wait, could he be this Young Prince? No wonder Prince Li Cheng calls him Young Prince, it's not because of his status, but because of his name..." Princess Wen Ya suddenly thought of Xiaoyao. She felt this Young Prince was most likely Xiaoyao.
"Oh? Do you know who this Young Prince is?" the King asked.
"I do. How many points did he get? Was he eliminated?" Princess Wen Ya asked with great anticipation.
"How could he be eliminated? His score was the highest, everyone else would be eliminated before him." The King was a bit puzzled. Why did his daughter seem to dislike this person called Young Prince?
"What did you say? The highest score?" Princess Wen Ya exclaimed, then shook her head. "Impossible! He couldn't have the highest score. He was the first one to leave."
"Ah, so this Young Prince is that young man who left first. That young man is quite good. To be able to clearly answer all your questions in such a short time shows he's quite skilled in sword forging. It's just a pity that he seems to have deliberately left one question blank, leaving it empty. Otherwise, his score would have been perfect," the King said.
"Let me see... completely blank, not even a single word written. Did he think my question had no answer, or was he too lazy to write, or did he deliberately leave it blank, wanting his score to be lower?" Princess Wen Ya wondered. She herself didn't know why she mentioned that last possibility, she just had that feeling, though it seemed impossible.
People who came to participate in the marriage competition all wanted to stand out the most. How could they deliberately not write? Unless he wasn't really here for the marriage proposal, he had another purpose.
Regardless, they had to announce the results now and eliminate some people.
There was also one more thing, to confirm whether that boy was indeed this "Young Prince"
"Young Prince!"
"Present!"
When Princess Wen Ya called out "Young Prince," Xiaoyao immediately responded. Perhaps there might have been other Young Princes before, but those had already been eliminated, so only Xiaoyao remained as the Young Prince.
However, at this moment, Xiaoyao was looking down eating, so he didn't see Princess Wen Ya's face.
"You're that Young Prince?" Princess Wen Ya looked at Xiaoyao.
"If there's no one else, then I'm that Young Prince," Xiaoyao continued destroying the food, to him, this was the most important thing.
"Why did you leave that question blank?" Princess Wen Ya suddenly asked.
"Too lazy to... no, I didn't know how to write it..." Xiaoyao instinctively replied, but soon he realized something was wrong and changed his answer.
"So it really is you, and you were too lazy to write it," Princess Wen Ya's previous question allowed her to confirm two things: first, Xiaoyao was indeed that Young Prince; second, Xiaoyao really had been too lazy to write.
How was this possible? Wasn't he supposed to be an ignorant person?
Strange.
Where did Princess Wen Ya get the impression that Xiaoyao was ignorant? Actually, Xiaoyao and Princess Wen Ya had met before...
"What do you mean 'really is me'... Huh? How is it you? What are you doing here?" Only then did Xiaoyao look up. When he saw Princess Wen Ya, he actually discovered that he knew her, she was that young lady he had met at the Sword Tomb.
"Why shouldn't I be here?" Princess Wen Ya looked at Xiaoyao. "On the contrary, it seems that when you said you liked that sword before, it wasn't just simple liking."
"That? I really just liked it," Xiaoyao said casually.
"Now, could you give me that sword?" Princess Wen Ya asked with a smile.
"Give it to you for what? Who are you anyway?" Xiaoyao looked at Princess Wen Ya. Obviously, he had no idea that the young lady standing before him was today's main character, Princess Wen Ya.
"I, I..." Princess Wen Ya hadn't expected that Xiaoyao actually didn't know who she was. But thinking about it, if he had known who she was, he wouldn't have reacted that way before.
However, maybe Xiaoyao was doing this deliberately, this might be his way of pursuing Princess Wen Ya. Yes, Princess Wen Ya had considered this possibility, but soon she dismissed the idea.
"A maid? Your clothes don't look like it though. Could you be..." Xiaoyao looked at Princess Wen Ya. Her clothes looked different from the previous maid, but although Princess Wen Ya's clothing was also of high quality, she had always been casual about this, so he couldn't be certain she was a princess or anything. Therefore, Xiaoyao came up with the following misunderstanding.
"Head maid!" Xiaoyao guessed.
"Thud!"
Princess Wen Ya and those who knew Princess Wen Ya's identity all fell over!
Hey, hey.
Are you really here to participate in the marriage competition? How can you not even know what she looks like? What if she turned out to be very ugly, would you really be willing to sacrifice yourself?
Or are you just here to play around?
"Young Prince, you're thoroughly dissolute, you can be completely indifferent even to your potential other half." Li Cheng bowed to Princess Wen Ya, then said with a smile.
(End of Chapter)