"Dislike it?" Lan Lingyan had gone to great lengths to pick out novels for her, asking several people. Didn't girls her age all enjoy reading when they settled down?

Ning Yunhuan didn't know how to explain her own terrible luck to him, so she quickly turned and embraced him instead. "What's so good about novels? They're all fake. Besides, no matter how amazing the male leads in those books are, are they a match for you?" Compared to Lan Lingyan, all those formidable protagonists from the explicit novels Ning Yunhuan had read previously looked like puppets being swept aside. Listening to his real stories was far better than reading fiction!

This remark seemed to please Lan Lingyan. He considered it and agreed there was sense in it. He dropped the idea of having her choose a novel, and instead, they settled on the sofa to talk.

Originally, Ning Yunhuan had been somewhat fearful of him, but perhaps it was because pregnancy made one bolder. Even though she still found Lan Lingyan somewhat terrifying now, the fear wasn't as intense. She tentatively reached out and rested her hand over the one he had around her waist. The joined palms were warm, and his fingers had fine calluses. Ning Yunhuan guessed he must have practiced something rigorously since childhood to develop them, as someone of his background shouldn't have had to endure hardship otherwise.

The thought of what he practiced immediately brought to mind the precision of him taking a headshot with a single bullet. She shivered involuntarily and instinctively arched her back.

"What is it?" Lan Lingyan deeply enjoyed this proximity, feeling content even in silence. Sensing her trembling, he turned his hand to grasp the soft one that had been resting on his. After confirming her hand wasn't cold, he quieted down again.

When they were together, Ning Yunhuan usually engaged in either intimate activities or mutual silence. But now, feeling less afraid of Lan Lingyan—especially since he hadn't touched her daily these past two days as he used to—she felt a touch of awkwardness. Seeking something to say, she began, "Lan..." She stopped, remembering how he mentioned that even Gu Yingxi called him 'Ninth Brother' while she never had. Her gaze drifted away. "I thought we were buying plane tickets to England earlier."

Lan Lingyan naturally heard her halting attempt to address him, but he understood the principle of haste making waste. He possessed immense patience and chose to ignore it for now, not pushing her. "People like us could never travel on commercial planes." A man like him had a life worth fortunes, and the Lan family commanded vast, unseen power overseas. Since childhood, as a form of trial, Lan Lingyan had to build his own network from scratch in Italy—a mandatory lesson for every Lan descendant. They had to establish their own cadres early on, and upon reaching adulthood, the cousins would begin to eliminate each other. Survival dictated dominance; failure meant their influence would be absorbed.

It was precisely this wolf-like, brutal training method of the Lan family that ensured the head of the household in every generation was never incompetent. In a place like the Lan compound, the incompetent weren't even deemed worthy of feeding the sharks; they rarely survived to adulthood!

These circumstances forced every member of the Lan family to view others as thorns in their sides. Until the patriarch was confirmed, cousins harbored mutual hatred and engaged in brutal infighting; the survivor reigned supreme, and death was a self-inflicted consequence. Once the patriarch was established, the victor had necessarily offended many and had to guard against secret attacks from enemies. Thus, wherever Lan Lingyan went, he was surrounded by escorts, and he owned numerous vehicles. Every time he returned to the country or traveled abroad, he used his own private jets. Ning Yunhuan knew he had many cars, but she didn't know he possessed over twenty such aircraft—a true master of having many safe houses, like the cunning rabbit.

Although these were experiences from his past, very few people today possessed the capability to threaten Lan Lingyan. However, that habit of vigilance was etched into his very bones. Even among his own generation of Lan descendants, most had either died or been crippled by him, yet he maintained the caution of his youth.

But Lan Lingyan decided not to share these details with Ning Yunhuan. The girl was too innocent; her world likely couldn't even conceive of such bloodshed. So, he merely squeezed her hand and fell silent again.

The comment about flying had reminded Ning Yunhuan of how Gu Yingxi, in a past life, often flew abroad on private jets due to the many men who loved her. This sparked a slight urge to comment. "Before, Gu—" she nearly blurted out the wrong name, quickly feigning nonchalance. "Before, when I read novels, the male leads usually took the female leads everywhere by private jet!" Forget traveling abroad; even domestically, if the destination within the same city was too far, people like Xie Zhuoyin would simply summon a private jet. At that time, Gu Yingxi would usually be both shocked and delighted—no woman disliked that sense of vanity. And once aboard, the flight would inevitably turn into a scene of multiple partners...

Hearing this, Lan Lingyan actually chuckled. "Are you saying you and I are the protagonists now?" As he spoke, he pressed a light kiss to her forehead. Perhaps because it was their first time discussing this near an aircraft, Lan Lingyan wasn't as taciturn as usual; instead, he drew Ning Yunhuan into conversation. As soon as he finished speaking, Ning Yunhuan's mouth twitched: "..."

Lan Jiu being the protagonist, Ning Yunhuan would admit, but calling herself the heroine was giving herself too much credit. The true heroine, Gu Yingxi, was currently busy seducing various leading men.

"I think I heard people at school say the Xie family has jets," Ning Yunhuan said, somewhat awkwardly abandoning the topic of heroines and supporting characters she had inadvertently raised. She shifted the conversation awkwardly. Lan Lingyan didn't mind; he had only been trying to amuse her. If she wanted to talk about this, fine; if not, it was all the same to him. Hearing her mention the Xie family owning jets, Lan Lingyan’s expression remained unchanged. "Many people in the Capital have jets, but owning one doesn't mean you can use it regularly." Seeing Ning Yunhuan look slightly confused, he considered the Ning family's background. They weren't so poor as to be unable to afford the cheapest jet for leisure, but the investigation suggested her father-in-law wasn't the flashy type, which explained her ignorance. So, he explained it to her:

"Unless it's a state-owned airline with fixed routes, every private flight requires obtaining flight clearance beforehand." Not just any aircraft can take to the skies; you have to pay for air corridors. Even a domestic flight costs hundreds of thousands, not counting other expenses, and flying overseas is much more costly. A round trip could easily exceed a million.

Moreover, even with money, one might not secure the necessary permits without connections. Buying a plane is easy, but flying it is difficult. Not to mention the annual expense just for the pilot of a private jet—that's why many families own them but can't use them whenever they please.

Ning Yunhuan finally understood. And with that understanding, she suddenly grasped why she had been defrauded of her assets by Ning Yuncheng in her previous life!