Writing takes subway cop on a new journey

A fresh perspective

Writing made the subway police officer realize that a few trivial things that had bothered him before had become interesting. For example, he wrote a post about a drunk man he discovered lying on the steps outside Longze Station one summer afternoon.

To prevent disruption to the other passengers, Ma took the man, who was holding a liquor bottle and wearing a cotton shirt covered in vomit, back to the station's police room. After leaving him asleep on a chair in the lobby with a cup of hot water, Ma became engrossed in other matters. When he returned a few hours later, the man had left without a word.

In a post, Ma wrote: "I was frustrated, as I felt like my work wasn't important to him. That it was all wishful thinking."

However, two days later, the man returned to the police station. Wearing the same shirt, which had been cleaned, he looked embarrassed. He first apologized for vomiting over Ma, and then offered to buy him a drink.

"Looking at him, I found I had underestimated my previous actions, and in that moment I also seemed to find my own worth," Ma wrote in a subsequent post.

He also wrote about a father in tears after finding his lost son in the subway, a love story about a middle-aged fruit vendor, an old man who started drinking after his wife died, and a white-collar worker standing on a subway overpass who neither wanted to work overtime nor go home to face family issues.

He also posted about a couple who were detained for cheating passengers out of money by lying, saying their wallets had been stolen and they needed to buy tickets in the subway. "From the stories, I saw many aspects of life, as well as different sides of the same person," Ma said.