Reborn amidst natural disaster, my childhood sweetheart and dad help me stock up and win effortlessl

The damp, cold air inside the pipes was mixed with the smell of dust. The heavy hatch creaked and turned inward as Lin Yu skillfully operated it.

Behind the door was not the open space they had expected, but a relatively spacious circular sealed hole, about five or six meters in diameter and three meters high. After the group went in, they immediately felt that the space was cramped.

The cave walls were mottled and dark, covered with old rivets, and a few emergency lights on the ceiling emitted a weak but steady white light, illuminating this temporary shelter.

"Come in." Lin Yu stepped aside to make way, and everyone filed in. With Ye Jingmo's help, the heavy hatch was quickly closed and tightened.

Jiang Li slid down to the ground, leaning against the cold wall. The wound on her shoulder throbbed intermittently. She forced herself to look away, but her gaze involuntarily fell on Lin Yu, who stood silently not far away.

This woman, who appeared out of nowhere and knew everything about the underground pipes, was like a huge mystery weighing on everyone's mind.

"Who exactly are you?" Jiang Li's voice was a little hoarse, but the question and doubt in it were crystal clear, breaking the silence in the cave. "Why do you know where we are hiding?" She asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

“This is definitely not your first time visiting this place, otherwise you wouldn’t know it so well.”

Ye Jingmo stood in front of Jiang Li, his tall figure forming an invisible protective stance. His sharp gaze was fixed on Lin Yu as if it were a physical object, his hand seemingly casually resting on the spare dagger at his waist, his entire body muscles kept taut as if ready to explode at any moment.

Qin Yu and Qin Yue also looked over nervously. Liang Zi leaned against the wall, breathing weakly, his eyes also filled with confusion and vigilance.

Xiao An was held tightly in Zhang Jing's arms, only her big, frightened eyes were visible.

Lin Yu did not answer immediately. She walked to a rusty valve next to the cave wall, turned it a few times, and a slight pressure release sound was heard, as if some of the foul air in the cave had been replaced.

After doing all this, she turned around and faced the scrutinizing gazes of the crowd. Her face remained expressionless and calm, but a trace of extremely complex weariness seemed to flash deep in her eyes.

“My name is Lin Yu,” her voice was not loud, but very clear, echoing between the cave walls, “I belong to the Logistics Support Department of ‘Deep Blue Project’, number LY-7. My duty is to maintain and ensure the smooth and safe passage of the ‘Return Journey’ route.”

"'Deep Blue Project'? 'Return Journey' route?" Qin Yu repeated, frowning, looking completely bewildered.

“It was one of the government’s top-secret plans before the full-blown disaster,” Lin Yu explained, speaking at a steady pace, as if reciting a report.

"The goal is to establish a secret evacuation route to a large underground survival base in the northwest for a very small number of key scientific research talents, important technical experts and their core family members who have been rigorously selected. The main body of this route is a railway line buried deep underground, specially reinforced and disguised—the 'Homeward Line'. And I am one of the mechanics of this line, responsible for equipment maintenance, emergency passage opening and route guidance in specific sections."

Her words were like a boulder thrown into stagnant water, creating a storm in everyone's hearts. Government? Secret plan? Underground railway? These words sounded as distant and fantastical as a fairy tale to them, struggling to survive in this apocalyptic world.

"A secret railway? Still in operation?" Ye Jingmo's voice was low and filled with distrustful scrutiny. "If things are like this outside, how can the railway still be used? Moreover, each base is now operating independently, and the central government probably can't unify the situation."

His doubts represented the sentiments of everyone.

They witnessed the collapse of the government firsthand; order was utterly destroyed, and the so-called secret plan sounded more like a fantastical illusion.

Lin Yu seemed to have anticipated this reaction. She shook her head slightly, her eyes showing even deeper weariness: "When the plan was launched, the scale and speed of the disaster far exceeded expectations. We only transported a few batches before communications were lost, the command system collapsed, and the evacuation operation fell into chaos. My squad and I were carrying out a routine maintenance mission when we got trapped in this area. We tried to contact our superiors, but..."

She paused, a barely perceptible hint of bitterness in her voice for the first time, "...The signal completely disappeared. After that, we had no choice but to live here. During the search for supplies, the team encountered various accidents... Only I survived."