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5 . Zeng Zheng is a hearing-impaired barista (听障咖啡师) in Chongqing. Together with some hearing-impaired people, he works at a coffee shop named Yijiao Cafe, which is located at Songshan General Hospital. The name of the coffee shop was inspired by a famous children’s book called The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein. The moral of the story is that one can find happiness by accepting one’s imperfections.

Zhu Jiayun founded the coffee shop in May 2022. In September 2022, Yijiao started a free barista training program for the hearing-impaired. The program attracted Zeng and others who used to live a hard life and tried many jobs. Four out of the 15 people were then chosen to work at the coffee shop by Zhu after a strict examination. In the same month, the first Yijiao Cafe shop, located in Yuzhong district, opened its doors.

In February 2023, the second coffee shop opened in Songshan General Hospital. In just a month, the new coffee shop sold more than 3,700 cups of coffee. “For every 10 yuan made by the store, 0.1 yuan is given away to others in need,” said Zhu.

Zhu plans to open three more coffee shops in 2023. “I hope that Yijiao Cafe is more than just a coffee shop, but can also serve as a model space, where the healthy people and disabled people can make coffee, drink coffee, or live and work together.” Zhu said.

6 .

7 . One day, a man saw an old lady sitting inside her car at the side of the road. Though it was dark, he could see she needed help. So he stopped his car and walked towards her. The old lady was worried. Was he going to hurt her? “I’ll help you start your car, madam. By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson,” he said.

While Anderson was putting a spare tire (备胎) to her car, the lady began to talk to him. She thanked him much for coming to help.

Anderson just smiled as he put his tools away. The lady asked how much she should pay him. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give them the help they needed. He waited until she started her car and drove off.

A few miles down the road, the lady saw a small restaurant. She went in and a waitress came over with a sweet smile. The old lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant (怀孕的), but she never let pains and aches change her smile when she served her.

The lady finished her meal and paid with a hundred-dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change, but the old lady was gone when the waitress came back. There was a note on the napkin (餐巾), “You don’t need to give me anything back. Somebody once helped me out the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do—do not let this chain (链子) of love end with you.” Under the napkin were four more 100 bills.

8 . If you have no special plans for your holidays, why not spend your time helping others? Nowadays, more and more young people in America volunteer (志愿) to spend their school holidays working for others. Here are some of their plans.

Jim, 16 years old

I’m going to help the Forest Centre build a new road in the mountains. I’ll spend the whole summer living in the tent and breathing the clean mountain air. I’m going to sleep under the stars. It will be a nice sport, and I’ll be able to do something good at the same time.

Susan, 15 years old

This summer, I’m going to work for Special House Program. They build good, low-cost houses and sell them to families that are not very rich. They’ll teach me what to do, so I’ll help people and also have a chance to learn how to build houses.

Michael, 17 years old

I’m going to teach children who have difficulty reading. I’ll work for a program called Reading for Life with my friend called Tom. Every day, I’m going to help children choose and read books that they like. I want to be a teacher and I love children, so this is going to be a great experience for me.

9 . After serving as a doctor in the village for over 50 years, Ma Wenfang, who is from a village of Henan Province, still likes people calling him a “barefoot (赤脚的) doctor”.

“Back in the 1950s and 1960s, there was no doctor in our village,” Ma said. Ma’s mother died of typhoid (伤寒) at the age of 32 in 1961. His younger brother also died of the same disease in less than two months. 10-year-old Ma saw his family die, he made up his mind to become a doctor.

After finishing his studies in middle school in 1967, Ma started to have medical training as a barefoot doctor. He learned both Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. Finally, Ma won the villagers’ trust through his hard work. In the 1960s, malaria (疟疾) made many people lost their lives and people had no idea how to control it. Ma visited his village’s families one by one to tell them about malaria. If someone was not at home, Ma would go out to look for him or her. When some villagers refused to take the medicine, Ma would persuade them into accepting it.

In the 1990s, Ma said he had more than 150 patients a day at the busiest time. At that time, he could make some money. After saving some of the money for his family, Ma used the rest to help poor villagers.

Now people live a better life and they want better medical services. And Ma still tries his best to help the villagers.

10 . There is a school called the Huaping High School for Girls in Lijiang, Yunnan Province. Its headmaster (校长) Zhang Guimei opened it twelve years ago and she has sent 1, 804 girls here to great colleges (大学) all over the country.

In 1996, when Zhang Guimei came to teach in Huaping, she found many young girls left school at a very young age. They went to work or got married because their families didn’t have money. To let these young girls have a good education, Zhang decided to open a free school for them.

After years of hard work, the Huaping High School for Girls finally opened. Zhang almost gave all her life to the students here. Some girls were afraid of the dark teaching building when they came to school early, so Zhang went to the school at 5 a. m. and turn on the lights of the teaching building for them. When the students studied in the classroom late at night, Zhang kept staying with them at school. Zhang also kept visiting the students’ homes to know more about them.

Zhou Yunli was one of Zhang’s students. She became a middle school teacher in a big city after finishing college. When hearing that her old school needed some math teachers, Zhou Yunli went back to her home town right away, “Without Ms. Zhang’s school, I would be nobody. It’s time for me to repay (报答) her and my old school.”