“It’s cold out,” reads a post on Sina Weibo earlier this month from 黄X艾 in Zhuhai:

There’s an elderly woman who sits with with a stall each night near the Postal Building bus stop. If you happen to pass by, slow your pace and help this old lady by buying some of her trinkets. Don’t bargain, they’re not expensive, and even if you don’t need them, just offer your small help for this old lady and let her get home earlier on this piercing windy night.

Nearly a month later, Guangzhou Daily reported this week that a number of netizens, inspired by the now widely circulated post, have gone down to the grandma’s stall, many purchasing items and leaving silently, some even refusing to accept their change.

After it was posted in early December, the original Weibo text was “retweeted” more than a thousand times within two weeks. Half of the “retweeters” have said that they bought something from the old lady and others say they will go soon.

Netizen “oO尕Fi” wrote on her Weibo account that, “I went to the grandma’s stall tonight. Her eyes are not so good and things are not so clear to her; she also got a bad memory. Her things are very cheap. Go and buy something, even if you don’t need it. And please, if possible, don’t ask her for change.”

It’s said that the old lady has a grandson, around seven or eight years old, and making money this way is for her to raise her grandson.

“I saw her and her grandson sharing a small box dinner at 11 at night,” said one frequent visitor, “life is tough but she doesn’t accept extra money. Buying things from her is the best way to help.”

Xiao Lin, a student from nearby Zijin Middle School, told Guangzhou Daily that she has made three separate trips to buy things from the grandma since she first saw the story on Weibo: “There are some small things, costing just one or two yuan. I never take the change, in fact I gave her more. I feel very warm by helping people this way.”