Emerging from the solitude of silence

A special case

Among them was a 9-year-old girl, who made a deep impression on Li.

Born deaf into an impoverished household, the girl was only able to communicate through simple gestures.

Her parents had sought treatment in different hospitals after she was diagnosed, but gave up due to the high cost.

"She had missed the best age to recover her hearing. After checking, I found she still couldn't hear any sound," she said. "In this case, a hearing aid was completely useless."

However, when Li saw the look of expectation and hope in the eyes of the girl and her mother, she changed her mind and did not tell them the bad news. Instead, she conducted another test.

"I adjusted the hearing aid over and over again and finally detected a reaction when I spoke to her," she said. "It meant that she could hear."

Li immediately started giving the girl speech training.

"I will never forget the moment when she said 'Mama' for the first time, even though she didn't have standard pronunciation," she said.

To have more free time, Li quit her sales job and opened her own hearing-aid store in July last year. But for more than half the year, she is away from home doing volunteer work.

"It was obvious to see the loss of customers when I was not in the store, but I have no regrets," she said. "Helping those who need urgent help is more important than earning money."