The first practical application of her "arsenal" came sooner than expected. Yun Ming's condition, while stable, required constant monitoring. The family's head physician was loyal, but Ye Xia trusted no one completely after Yun Zhong's betrayal.
She remembered the advanced, portable medical diagnostic equipment she had purchased on a whim—a whole suite of devices meant for a mobile clinic that never materialized. She had wasted a fortune on them. Now, she had them moved to a secure room adjacent to Yun Ming's chambers.
"Uncle," she explained, "this equipment can run full blood panels, ECG, even basic ultrasound. I will run the tests myself, every day. The data will be stored on a standalone server,"—another piece of wasted tech, a server rack bought for a canceled AI project—"that has no connection to the outside world. No one can tamper with your results."
Yun Ming looked at the sophisticated machinery with wonder. "You bought all this... just to spend money?"
" Essentially," Ye Xia said with a wry smile. "But now, it will help keep you alive."
The medical equipment became the cornerstone of a larger project. Using the powerful, unused server and the modified long-range walkie-talkies, she and Silas began constructing a private communications network for their inner circle. They called it the "Ghost Network." It was entirely offline, using a proprietary encryption protocol Silas designed, and relayed through the hardened walkie-talkies. It was untraceable and unhackable by conventional means.
The first person she brought onto the Ghost Network, after Silas and Yun Ming, was Mo.
She sent him one of the modified walkie-talkies by secure courier. That night, his voice, clear and static-free, came through the device for their first call.
" An interesting toy," Mo remarked, his tone appreciative. "Far more secure than digital lines."
" It was a 'waste' of about 200,000 RMB," Ye Xia replied. "Now it's our secret line. What's the situation with the Matriarch?"
" She is displeased with my... lack of progress in 'handling' you," Mo said. "Evangeline's frustration is growing. They are planning something for the upcoming International Economic Summit in Tokyo. They intend to publicly humiliate you, to make you appear unstable and unfit to lead the Yuns."
The information was gold. Ye Xia now had time to prepare a countermove, all thanks to a network built from discarded tech.