"I'll never forget the day we met," Li said. It was Dec 6, 2014, and he was supposed to get a day off but stood in for a sick colleague. Following standard procedures, Li made inquiries with Zou, who happened to be standing by his side.

"Is everything fine?" he asked.

"Yep, all going well," she replied.

Just pleasantries perhaps, but Li remembered her name and where she worked. They became friends. Once in a chat, Zou said that she had never tried the spicy noodles, the local cuisine, even after so many stops at Xinxiang.

When Zou stopped at the station next, she found a thermal bag that contained spicy noodles at the door of the train. Li had been listening. She did not open the bag until after work, but the cool noodles warmed her heart.