From Construction Apprentice to Infrastructure Legend

At sixteen, Deng Xiaoqian became a laborer's apprentice on a construction site. With no education or connections, he scraped by in muddy site sheds. The workers around him accepted their lot, laboring for a pittance and mocking him, but late at night, under the harsh glare of a bulb, he doggedly studied engineering theory, wielding formulas like blades and data like armor.

After witnessing the devastating losses caused by a slope collapse, he realized that no detail in engineering was trivial: data could mean the difference between life and death. In the Gobi wilderness, he stood up to the old-timers' reliance on experience, walking through wind and sand to remeasure the site and correcting shoddy construction with measured data.

Called upon in a crisis to take charge of an overseas infrastructure project worth tens of billions, he faced workplace ostracism and deliberate obstruction by foreign parties. He established his own standardized construction system and stood his ground against foreign supervisors. By gathering complete evidence and taking the case to international arbitration, he won the project a massive settlement.

As he moved from country to country on overseas engineering projects, he faced technological barriers imposed by Europe and America, along with their arrogance and obstruction. He worked through the calculations and checked every clause against the relevant standards, using sheer technical expertise to outperform a host of overseas authorities.

After twenty-five years of struggle, winning throughout the industry and seeing through its many problems, he turned down a high salary at forty-one and returned to his hometown. There, he used the engineering skills he had spent a lifetime mastering to build a flawless courtyard residence with his own hands.