diff --git a/egs/aishell/ASR/zipformer_bbpe/decode.py b/egs/aishell/ASR/zipformer_bbpe/decode.py
index 101abe627..543ab84c8 100755
--- a/egs/aishell/ASR/zipformer_bbpe/decode.py
+++ b/egs/aishell/ASR/zipformer_bbpe/decode.py
@@ -550,7 +550,9 @@ def decode_dataset(
             this_batch = []
             assert len(hyps) == len(texts)
             for cut_id, hyp_words, ref_text in zip(cut_ids, hyps, texts):
-                ref_words = ref_text.split()
+                ref_words = "".join(ref_text.split())
+                hyp_words = "".join(hyp_words)
+
                 this_batch.append((cut_id, ref_words, hyp_words))
 
             results[name].extend(this_batch)