The morning Line 3 is bustling with crowds; everyone is rushing for a living, with hurried footsteps.

In the crowded crowd, I noticed a short, middle-aged man. He had a heavy yellow burlap sack slung over his shoulder, a black tote bag in his left hand, and an orange burlap sack bulging with contents in his right hand. These three large bundles seemed as if they would completely overwhelm him—I could hardly see his figure at all.
When he reached the elevator entrance, because of the weight, he had to stop. He put down the burlap sack in his right hand, adjusted the burden on his shoulder, took a deep breath, and prepared to lift the sack again to continue moving forward.
However, since he blocked the escalator entrance, the stream of people behind began to go around him. Some even cast impatient looks at him. The middle-aged man looked somewhat embarrassed and helpless; his things were simply too heavy for him to lift quickly.
At that moment, a man (Brother A) quickly walked up to him, extended his left hand, and grabbed the orange burlap sack on the ground. The two of them walked forward together—one on each side—carrying the bags. Before the middle-aged man even had time to turn around and thank this kind person, he was already being guided to keep moving forward.
When they arrived at the next escalator, I thought Brother A was also rushing to his own destination and would leave—but I didn’t expect that he kept helping the middle-aged man carry the sacks. While smiling, he asked, “Where are you headed? Which line are you taking?” “I’ll take you there.” Even though the surroundings were noisy and I couldn’t make out their conversation clearly, the middle-aged man’s “Thank you” with a dialect clearly reached my ears. The two of them walked side by side, and Brother A would occasionally turn his body to help steady the burlap sack on the middle-aged man’s shoulder.
I stood behind them and noticed that the middle-aged man was thinly dressed, wearing slippers, and even had wounds on his feet that I hadn’t noticed before. Meanwhile, Brother A carried a dusty black backpack and was dressed plainly—clearly also rushing to his own destination. Yet on this hurried trip, two strangers who had never met before found their connection through a kind act.
When I passed by Brother A, I gave him a small smile and a thumbs-up.
Watching these two strangers, within just two minutes, my eyes couldn’t help turning red. Maybe we all have our own roads to walk and our own problems to solve, but on this journey—help from a stranger, a stranger’s greeting—how could it not be the courage and encouragement for us to keep moving forward? The frail body of the middle-aged man might be bearing a family’s heavy responsibility; Brother A’s help, though only brief companionship, was enough to warm his heart and support him to keep going. Help from people you don’t know, kindness that takes no more than a raised hand—this busy and restless world becomes a little warmer, a little more full of love. Maybe Brother A is kind by nature. Or maybe he has also experienced storms and now wants to hold up an umbrella for others.
Even if life often brings heavy pressure and challenges, there are always some warm beams of light that let people breathe out and ease up a little. The brief warmth on the subway makes me believe that this world is still full of love—becoming better through repeated repairing and patching.