In a small massage shop in Xiji county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Zhao Ling, a visually impaired reader, has quietly built a volunteer-run book club that brings people together through stories.

Year after year, dozens of reading sessions turn this modest space into a place of reflection, strength, and connection.

Inspired by works like How the Steel Was Tempered and To Live by Yu Hua, participants find resilience in words and courage in shared experience. For Zhao Ling, reading is a way to reshape life, to replace impatience with calm, and to see hardship in a new light.

In this "County of Literature", stories are doing more than being told; they are healing, empowering, and helping people grow toward the light, he said.