Christmas was drawing near, and came along with it our favorite moment — the Treasure Hunt.

In the past, my brother Brandon and I had opened all of the packages under the tree. All that was left was an envelope. We knew that envelopes usually contained cards, and if we were lucky, they also contained gift cards or cash.

However, this Christmas my dad looked almost like he’d forgotten about the envelope as he casually handed it to me. I opened it and discovered inside a 3x5 index card (索引卡) with a border of shining surrounding a poem. Of course, I don’t remember the poem by heart, but its rhyming message instructed us to go downstairs. We were excited. Maybe we were getting a pet we had wanted.

What we found downstairs was another envelope, containing another index card with a border of shining surrounding a poem. This poem told us to go to Dad’s car. Was the pet already in the car, ready to go?

No! There was just another envelope containing another shining index card. This one told us to go to Mom’s office downtown. Neither of us was old enough to drive. This meant we had to beg our parents to hurry up and get dressed and finish drinking their coffee and get going.

Eventually, we made it to Mom’s office where we found — you guessed it — a poem telling us to go somewhere else. This time it was to the TV station where Dad worked. By now, our curiosity was stretched to the limits of our imaginations.

We soon found out, however, that such a desk at the studio is a lovely place to keep a 3x5 index card with a poem, which confused us more than any other. It told us to go to an unfamiliar address.

The car stopped in front of the unknown house. It felt like the end of the hunt.

My dad handed us the final envelope, and the final poem told us to knock on the door.

Dad was standing behind us by then, and “Merry Christmas,” he said, “The cat’s yours.”

Liam was an introvert(内向的人). On his first day of transferring to a new school,he felt nervous and didn’t talk to anyone. However, when he was eating his lunch alone in the cafeteria, a boy named Joel approached him and talked to him. And coincidentally, they became deskmates.

As days passed, Liam and Joel became friends. After school, they often played catch together. It was a game they both loved playing.

One day, Joel skipped school, and Liam had to sit alone in class, At noon, his class teacher Mary said that Joel got into an accident and he lost his parents in the car crash. Joel was severely injured and was in the hospital.

After returning home that day, Liam cried while telling his mother what had happened to Joel, He asked his mother if he could see Joel at the hospital, but she told him the doctors weren’t allowing any visitors at that time. “Don’t worry, Liam. Joel’s grandmother is looking after him at the hospital. He will be fine,” his mother assured him.

Meanwhile, Liam missed his best friend at school and wished he would join him at school soon. Since Joel was his only friend and other students didn’t like talking to him, he spent most of the time in school alone.

Fifteen days later, Joel returned home and Liam couldn’t wait to see his friend. Liam rushed to Joel’s house with a candy bar and the ball they used to play catch with. However,his friend was now confined to a wheelchair and depended on his grandmother to move around.Liam felt terrible knowing Joel could never walk again. Moreover, seeing his elderly grandma struggle to push the wheelchair made Liam feel even worse.

Later that night, Liam kept thinking of all the ways he could help Joel and then realized buying an electric wheelchair would be the best option. Since an electric wheelchair would be expensive, he decided to set up a charity contest at school. But he needed to ask his teacher first.

The next day, Liam approached his teacher Mary and shared his idea.

After the event, Liam counted the money people had left in the donation box.

There is a homeless (or at least very poor) woman who sometimes is sitting near where I am living. begging for money. Unfortunately, the “inner city places” are often being “strongly requested” by younger men and women who take over the space.

Whenever I see her, I make sure to give her something, and if I am out of money, at least I talk to her for a few seconds. When younger people are around, I often make sure to drop a few coins into her cup while passing her a note without anybody seeing it in the hope that they will leave her alone.

Today she surprised me. I was passing her again, giving her some money, and asked her how she was. She surprised me by saying that she wanted to thank me. Not for the money. Well, for that too, but for always taking the time to talk to her.

She mentioned how hard it is for her to have so little money that she has to beg. She often feels ashamed, but she now has prepared for several days to talk to me, and to thank me for treating her as a human being. Some people only walked by or sometimes dropped some money. But they never made eye contact or talked to her. which made her feel even more ashamed, almost non-human. She said she was looking forward to my walking by because she knew I would look at her and see a person. On hearing all this, I had tears in my eyes, and still do, when thinking of this.

I still don’t know why she is on the street. Maybe one day she will open up, but I will not ask her right away. But I will be even more on the lookout for her, making sure to talk to her as often as possible!

Rose was an unfortunate girl. When she was 15, her parents were lost to a flood, leaving her with her grandma, who was over 60.

Grandma had to work hard to support the family and pay her tuition fees. Three years later, Rose was admitted to a college. Unfortunately, the cost of ten thousand yuan a year at college was too much for Grandma. She couldn’t afford it even if she worked day and night. Rose decided to give up the chance to go to college and work at home.

Rose’s grandmother struck her with a shaking hand and said, “Never give up. Everything will be all right.” So Rose left her hometown and set foot on the road to study.

Rose studied very hard and she saved every penny. It was in her second semester that she received a letter from her grandmother. During the holidays, she had heard Grandma talk about her plan to work as a babysitter. At that time, she persuaded Grandma that no one would hire her at such an old age. Unexpectedly, Grandma told her in the letter that she actually worked as a babysitter in a person’s home. Rose smiled in relief. What Grandma didn’t tell her was that a man failing in his business had promised to help Rose’s study when she was reduced to begging. From then on, Rose, received the tuition fees and living costs provided by her grandmother in time. Every time she received the money, her heart would shake. What she was holding in her hands was not money, but Grandma’s warm heart.

One day after she started her junior year, her grandmother’s employer found her at school and told her that her grandmother had passed away. Her heart was broken when she heard the news. The employer, Eric, a young man aged 37 or 38, told her with tears in his eyes, “You have the greatest grandma in the world, girl. Don’t disappoint your grandma in the future. I’ll cover all your tuition if you come to work for my business when you finish your studies. That’s a promise.”

Rose agreed.

Looking at her puzzled face, Eric told her the truth.