Mr. Smith was in trouble those days. He drove a car for Mr. Black, a rich business-man. He worked hard and the boss liked him. But he couldn’t work when he drank too much. And once he almost fell into the river when he drove along the bridge. Mr. Black became angry and was going to send him away. Mr. Smith had a big family to raise and was afraid of losing his job. So he promised that he would stop drinking at once. The man told him to wait to be dealt with (处理).

One Monday morning Mr. Smith came into the office with two badly burned ears.

“What happened to your ears?” asked Mr. Black.

“Well,” said the man. “I was watching a football match on TV yesterday while my wife was ironing (熨) clothes. She had put the iron near the telephone before she went to cook supper. Our team lost the game and I felt sorry for it. As soon as I went into the sitting room, the phone rang and I answered the iron!”

“And what happened to the other ear?”

“When I put the iron down on the table, the telephone rang again!”

Datiehua, or striking iron (铁) flowers, is a traditional Chinese art form (形式) and it has a history of more than 1, 000 years. People strike iron juice into the sky, making iron flowers more than 10 meters high.

Last June, a video of striking iron flowers got popular online. To many people’s surprise, the main character of the video is a young woman. She is Jiang Xunqian.

Jiang Xunqian is a famous vlogger (视频博主). She was interested in the traditional art when she was young. When she saw striking iron flowers three years ago, she was touched and decided to learn it herself. Later, she found Yang Jianjun, an inheritor (传承人) of the art. Even though Yang said it was too dangerous for a girl, Jiang Xunqian made up her mind. She spent months practicing, from morning to night. Finally, she became the first woman to perform striking iron flowers.

“Though it was difficult, I made it. For those who want to try something new, I would say ‘Just do it’. Don’t think too much. If you keep trying, you’ll find your answers finally,” she said.

Ashlyn Blocker was a quiet baby. She didn’t cry even when he was hungry. Her parents felt lucky to have a such a calm child. When Ashlyn was eight months old, Mr. and Mrs. Blocker noticed a problem with her eye. It was red and looked painful, so they took her to the doctor. As he checked on Ashlyn, the doctor carefully touched her sore eye. Patients, especially babies and children, usually don’t like this, and they try to move away. Ashlyn didn’t do this. The doctor was surprised. After checking, he began to realize that Ashlyn didn’t feel pain.

After discovering that their daughter couldn’t feel pain, the Blockers no longer felt lucky. because Ashlyn could easily hurt herself and not know. As Ashlyn began to move around more and to walk, keeping her safe became more and more of a challenge.

At first, the doctors thought she might be the only case in the world. But later they found that there were others with the condition- a whole family in Pakistan and eight other kids who lived nearer to Ashlyn in the US.

Now doctors are studying Ashlyn and other people who don’t feel pain. They want to understand the condition and help people who have it. But they also want to understand how the body can stop pain. It may help them to develop new medicines to block pain—good news for anyone who experiences a lot of it.

What’s it like to feel no pain? Ashlyn deals with the condition well and has a happy life. She says, “It’s just me. It’s all I’ve ever known. ”