"How do you rank these 'cups' from lowest to highest?"
Her warm breath gently brushed against his earlobe, but Leon's mind was completely elsewhere.
According to his common sense.
DCBA.
A should be the highest tier. Was the Luofu really that powerful?
Fu Xuan froze, her small face flushing beet red.
She had absolutely no idea how to respond to this topic.
Seriously, buddy? You're asking about cup sizes without even knowing which letter is big and which is small?
You're asking a question about cup tiers?
Are you for real?
The more Fu Xuan looked at him, the more she thought he was a troll.
Pretending not to know just to tease her.
But even though she thought that,
the sincerity in his eyes couldn't be faked.
There wasn't a hint of teasing in Leon's eyes.
Even his words carried no ambiguous atmosphere, only the seriousness of someone earnestly discussing statistics.
"You scoundrel!"
Fu Xuan bit her lower lip, her pair of pale pink eyes glaring at him as she cursed him in a flustered whisper.
Did he have to make her admit her own shortcomings!
Fu Xuan complained silently.
But she still gritted her teeth and whispered the piece of common knowledge into his ear, giving him the answer.
Her mind and mouth could curse him all they wanted, but they'd already come this far. She couldn't just give up halfway, could she?
What would all her previous sacrifices have been for then?
Besides, Leon was asking in a very serious manner, without a shred of personal desire.
That much was clear.
And she'd already blurted out her cup size, was there any point in hemming and hawing about the tier?
He looked like he was genuinely seeking an answer. If she avoided the question, wouldn't that make it seem like she was the one with the problem?
"Holy crap, so after all that, you're just a small cup!"
After hearing her answer, Leon shot her a surprised look.
ABCD.
That was the order from lowest to highest.
"What's wrong with being a small cup!"
Upon hearing this, Fu Xuan's red face instantly darkened, a vein faintly bulging on her forehead.
At the term 'small cup,' she felt only blatant humiliation, not a shred of bashfulness!
"If you're just a small cup, then what are we even talking about? I'm bouncing to the Yaoqing."
Small cup. Evaluation: extremely low versatility. Players who like to be masochists can pull for one if they want to be stuck in jail.
Leon would definitely avoid it at all costs; pulling it would just pollute his account.
Fu Xuan's eyes widened, a "Are you kidding me?" expression on her face.
What kind of joke was this, what's wrong with being a small cup!
Who was she bothering by being a small cup?
Doesn't he think she wants to be a large cup? Does he have any idea how hard she's tried!
Leaving just like that? Then what about all the sacrifices she'd made before?
The Luofu isn't a sore loser.
But if the Luofu lost to the Yaoqing over something like this, Fu Xuan would find the result completely unacceptable!
"Uh, so what exactly is a 'cup'?"
The white, fluffy fox ears twitched as Feixiao, who had been watching them flirtatiously bicker from the side, raised her hand and asked in confusion.
"Your strength levels."
Leon answered the question.
"Huh?"
The word 'bust' was about to leave Fu Xuan's lips but was forcefully stuffed back in by his answer.
"...What do you mean by strength?"
Fu Xuan asked, stunned.
What did he mean, cup refers to strength?
If that was true, had she been misunderstanding him this whole time and made a colossal fool of herself?
"Of course, I'm talking about which is stronger, the Luofu or the Yaoqing."
Leon replied as if it were obvious.
"Since you're both recommending yourselves, I obviously have to compare you, weed out the inferior one, and then make a decision."
Leon didn't see what the problem was.
"Why did you have to use 'cup' as a substitute?"
Fu Xuan covered her face, feeling more and more mortified with every word.
Compared to his true intentions, her series of actions just now had been humiliating beyond belief!
Kill me now, I'm done!
"You know my verbal tic, right? The strong always have their little quirks."
At this, Leon sighed helplessly.
Sigh, he could only blame it on reviewing a certain four-character anime tower defense game.
"It's just like how you refer to yourself as 'this one.' I just have a habit of calling people 'big cup' or 'medium cup.'"
Leon stated he had no intention to insult or discriminate.
Okay, maybe a little.
"Why didn't you clarify first that that's what you were asking?"
Fu Xuan's voice trembled. She really wanted to die right now.
She had jumped to conclusions, assuming he was teasing an innocent maiden. Not only had she misunderstood from the very beginning, but she had also directed a series of lewd remarks at him.
But in the end, he had no such intentions at all.
She knew a world-altering individual couldn't possibly be so frivolous.
The problem was, he wasn't being frivolous, but she had been completely frivolous!
Fu Xuan was so embarrassed right now she wanted to go straight back to the Luofu.
But if she really went back, all her efforts to recruit him would be wasted.
She had already sacrificed so much, how could she not see the battle through to the end?
If it's this cup and not that cup, then the Luofu still has a fighting chance, and a good one at that.
Fight!
"Weren't you in a hurry to report? You jumped in before I had a chance to explain."
Leon said in surprise, "Seeing how eager you were, I thought the Luofu was a big cup. Turns out it's a small cup after all."
"No… that cup isn't…"
Fu Xuan's face turned red, but she couldn't bring herself to explain what she had reported.
"Why is your face red?"
Leon asked, puzzled.
"If we're talking purely about military might, the Yaoqing is slightly superior to the Luofu."
Feixiao had no idea what private words the two had exchanged, but she knew her opportunity had come.
Among the seven Xianzhou ships, the Yaoqing possessed the greatest martial virtue and was also famous for its great victories.
It wasn't a problem to say it was slightly superior to the Luofu.
"What cup?"
Leon asked instinctively.
"If we use ABCD to represent the ranking from high to low, the Yaoqing's military strength is A-cup."
Feixiao naturally had to praise her own Xianzhou a bit more; it was key to keeping him here.
Hearing this, Leon gave Fu Xuan another surprised look.
The meaning was clear: So how is your A-cup at the bottom?
Fu Xuan turned her head away, unwilling to endure the torture of his gaze.
Her soft cheeks were stained crimson, and she was so embarrassed she subconsciously clutched the hem of her skirt, stammering.
His stare made her feel like she had nowhere to hide.
She had no idea how to respond to that look.
Was it her fault this round was played so badly?
Who told him to ask in such a misleading way!
But Fu Xuan couldn't bring herself to criticize him.
Because she had her own verbal tics.
Was she really going to lecture someone else on their personal habits?
What was she, some kind of shrew?
Fu Xuan couldn't bring herself to do something like claiming he was somehow at fault.
Besides, when it came down to it, this round really was her fault!
The root of it all was her jumping to conclusions, her competitive desire to strike first clouding her judgment.
"If we go by your standards, the Luofu's military strength is a B+, but that's only looking at achievements."
Fu Xuan took a deep breath, calming her turbulent emotions before speaking.
"Strictly speaking, the combat power of the seven Xianzhou ships is more or less the same. It's just that we specialize in different areas."
Fu Xuan would definitely not let the Yaoqing take advantage of the situation.
She had already thrown her shame to the wind; how could she possibly accept a crushing defeat?
___
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