With Evangeline temporarily neutralized, the most immediate threat became Jin Lei. Humiliated by the warehouse trap and enraged by his father's meeting with Ye Xia, he became increasingly reckless.
His attacks moved from business to the personal. A Yun family warehouse was firebombed. A convoy of cars carrying Yun executives was forced off the road. The assaults were deniable, but the signature was clear: brute force and arrogance.
Ye Xia knew she had to respond in a way that would cripple him without starting an all-out war with Jin Long. She needed to hit him where it would hurt most: his pride and his pocketbook.
She remembered another item from her storage locker: the complete set of high-end golf clubs. They were worthless to her. But she knew Jin Lei was an avid golfer, a member of an exclusive club where he conducted a lot of his shady business.
She devised a plan. Using a shell company, she hired a talented young professional golfer who had been blacklisted by the establishment for refusing to throw a match. She bankrolled his entry into an invitation-only tournament that Jin Lei was certain to win.
The tournament became the talk of the sporting world. The unknown rookie, playing with a fierce, undeniable talent, went head-to-head with the arrogant Jin Lei. On the final hole, with millions watching, the rookie sank an impossible putt to win.
Jin Lei, in a fit of rage, smashed his own expensive golf club against a tree. The image was captured by every camera and splashed across front pages. He was a laughingstock.
The financial blow was even worse. Ye Xia's golfer had been given odds of 100-to-1. The bet she placed through another shell company netted another fortune, while Jin Lei lost a massive wager he had placed on himself.
It was a masterstroke. She had used a pointless purchase—the golf clubs that inspired the idea—to publicly humiliate her enemy and financially bleed him, all without throwing a single punch. The "Ugly Heiress" was proving to be a genius of unconventional warfare.