- A woman ordered drugs used for treating snake bites on a fast delivery platform and asked the courier to make it a priority
- Fearing the woman might die, the panicked courier raced to the delivery address, praying he would get there in time
A bike courier in southern China received an unusual order last week when a customer requested antivenom for “urgent” delivery saying she had been bitten by a snake.
The unidentified female customer from Beihai in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region ordered drugs used for treating snake bites on a fast delivery platform, asking the courier to make it a priority as a snake had bitten her, The Paper reported.
Courier Yang Zhuofan was alarmed by the request and replied as soon as he picked up the order.
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“Sure. This is no problem at all,” replied the 19-year-old university student who works as a part-time courier during the holidays.
The order requested Yang collect the drugs from a pharmaceutical store in a downtown area and deliver them to a small clinic in the nearby countryside that had run out of snake antivenom.
When his reply still had not been read several minutes later, Yang anxiously messaged the woman again.
“Are you still alive? Are you still alive? I’m passing the No 1 Middle School now. Hang in there!”
While speeding to get to the woman, he went on to say: “In order to save you, I put my life on a bet to fight against the God of Death. As long as I can save you, my life will have no regrets. “
Yang completed the 5km journey in 20 minutes, a trip that would normally take more than half an hour.
After arriving at the destination, Yang sent a message to the customer asking: “Buddy, I’ve arrived. Where are you? Where are you?”
“I saw the customer – a woman in her 20s – she looked fine so I felt relieved,” Yang said afterwards.
When he first saw the customer’s message requesting faster delivery of drugs to treat a snake bite he was terrified he would not make it in time and thought: “I shouldn’t let this customer die.
“Now I find that the meaning of the courier job is not only to send goods to people but also to save people’s lives.”
Online readers praised Yang’s decisive action in racing to deliver the drugs to the woman in time.
“This courier’s passionate bike roaring is the most touching and most lovely sound I have ever heard,” commented one person on Douyin.
“It really moved me. The courier had to ride quickly, but in the meanwhile, had to comfort the woman, putting his own safety aside,” another person said.
“This is the star we should chase. He is the role model for us,” praised a third person online.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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