It is obvious that first cout prints 7 7 but why the second one prints 8 8 7 ? Why not 7 8 8? How does such constructions work in c++?

int ink(int *x){
     *x += 1;
     return *x;
}

int main(){
    int *a;
    int b = 6;

    a = &b;

    cout << ++b << " " << b << endl;   
    cout << b << " " << ink(a) << " " << b;

    return 0;

}