"Xiao Kui's Path and Accounts"

At the Baihetan Management Office of Qiaojia Highway Branch, Zhaotong Highway Bureau in Yunnan Province, everyone calls him "Xiao Kui." The measurement notebook in his hand is never out of reach.

On the night of January 19, 2026, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck Qiaojia. Aftershocks continued, and rocks kept rolling down. Gou Tongkui put on his orange safety uniform, grabbed his measurement notebook, and rushed to the road.

The car headlights illuminated the dark highway as he patrolled and recorded—length and width of roadbed cracks, locations of slope loosening, and abnormal changes in bridge expansion joints. Rocks occasionally hit the car roof, and he told his colleagues, "I’m familiar with the geological conditions of this section; you stay behind me." He spent the entire night covering all the key road sections.

Before dawn the next day, a handwritten report on earthquake damage inspection was already on the desk. The locations of landslides, their volume, required machinery hours, and labor numbers were all clearly documented.

This wasn’t his first time heading into danger. It was just another ordinary night in his more than ten years of frontline work.

Measuring the road, measuring the heart

Gou Tongkui is the recorder at the Baihetan Management Office. In frontline maintenance stations, this position requires daily road inspections—checking road conditions, calculating maintenance work, and recording material consumption. How much asphalt was laid on which section, how many anchor rods were installed on which slope, how much de-icing agent was used during emergency repairs—all of it goes through his hands, measured and recorded one by one.

On January 9, 2025, the G352 section from Laodian to Mashu encountered freezing temperatures and ice. A private car carrying a family got stuck in the snow-covered road. Gou Tongkui arrived at the scene, grabbed a shovel to clear snow, installed anti-skid chains, and helped push the car out with his colleagues. The driver held his hand and thanked him repeatedly. He smiled and said, "As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters." But instead of rushing back, he squatted by the roadside, took out a tape measure to measure the ice thickness, and wrote in his notebook:

"G352 Line K1468+000 to K1478+000, average ice thickness on the road surface: 4 cm, snow depth: 20 cm, de-icing agent applied: 1.2 tons/km, time spent: 45 minutes. Recommendation: This section tends to freeze in the early morning; de-icing agent reserves need to be increased by 30%."

He said, "Saving people is important, but if we don’t calculate clearly, how can we prepare better next time?"

A tape measure, measuring the safety baseline

Gou Tongkui’s "measurements" are never perfunctory.

During a routine inspection, he noticed small cracks on a section of the road surface. He squatted down and took out a tape measure from his pocket—crack width: 3 mm, length: 2.7 m. He then compared it with historical records and found the crack had widened by 0.8 mm since last month. This made him alert: it wasn’t an ordinary shrinkage crack; it could be a precursor to roadbed subsidence.

He immediately reported it and set up fixed monitoring points at both ends of the crack, measuring it daily. By the third day, the crack width had reached 4.5 mm, prompting him to implement safety measures in time. A week later, the section showed significant subsidence, but thanks to early warnings and actions, accidents were effectively avoided.

A probationary party member, still charging ahead

Gou Tongkui is a probationary party member. He often says that the standards for party members shouldn’t wait until the day of official membership.

On May 12, during the flood season, a landslide occurred at the G352 section near Heye Village, Jintang Town. Large amounts of weathered rock poured down, blocking both directions and stranding about 50 people. Gou Tongkui and his team were conducting routine maintenance nearby and immediately turned around to assist upon receiving the emergency.

The rock at the top of the site was fractured, with stones sliding down intermittently. He helped set up warning zones and guided the stranded people, then grabbed a shovel to clear debris alongside his teammates. While the loader removed large landslide rocks, he focused on clearing smaller debris. As he worked, he took out his tape measure and notebook—400 cubic meters of landslide debris, 9 emergency personnel, 1 loader, 2 command vehicles, 5 hours to clear the road. The data was meticulously recorded.

The road and accounts in the notebook

The measurement notebook he carries has become worn and frayed. It’s filled with various maintenance data, and though the handwriting isn’t neat, every entry is written with care. He often tells younger colleagues, "Highways are like people; you need to remember where they’ve been sick and how they were treated. Relying solely on memory will get confusing over time."

Someone once asked him why he measures and records everything so meticulously every day. "I’m a recorder. If I measure accurately and calculate clearly, maintenance can avoid detours, and people will face fewer dangers. My view of achievement is simple—make every meter of road safe and ensure every account is honest." Without lofty theories, this is what he says and what he does.

Gou Tongkui, an ordinary frontline maintenance worker, uses a tape measure, a pen, and a heart to measure every crack and rut on Qiaojia’s highways. There are no earth-shattering slogans, just day after day of road inspections, maintenance, and emergency repairs.

He writes the data in his notebook and keeps the road in his heart.

This is "Xiao Kui’s" road and accounts—frayed at the edges but filled with the most solid work.