Li Hui, a post-80s young man, gives free masks to citizens outside the Baotou Donghe Railway Station. (Photo/baotounews.com)

A post-80s man recently attracted attention up and down the country thanks to his good deed of giving free masks to citizens all around Baotou in Northern China's Inner Mongolia, Baotou Evening News reported.

Li Hui, a self-employed businessman selling disposable meal boxes and single-use face masks, has now gifted a total of 20,000 masks to citizens at his store and the Baotou Donghe Railway Station. "Originally, I bought 20,000 to sale as usual before the Spring Festival. However, as the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak continues to spread across our country, I hoped I could be of any assistance," Li said. Therefore, he came up with the idea of gifting the masks to citizens, and the idea immediately won support from his family members.

With the simple idea of giving the masks to people in need, Li went outside to hand them out. Because very few people visited his store during the Spring Festival holiday, he carried the masks to the railway station where there was a large flow of travelers. At the same time, Li's family, his mother and his 9-year-old daughter, also handed out free masks to pedestrians at the store.

Starting from Jan. 26, free masks were handed out at Li's storefront as well as outside the Baotou Donghe Railway Station. When the masks were first taken out, everyone thought they were for sale. Yet regardless of who might ask how much they were selling for, Li would say, "For free." Many of those who took the masks would say a hearty "thank you" to him. "Their warm words make me feel very happy," Li said.

When asked whether he had ever thought about selling those masks, Li answered, "I didn't think that much, I just wanted to render a little assistance to other people."

While most people stay at home in the midst the public health crisis, Li Hui and his family chose to put themselves in harm's way in an endless stream of people to help fight the contagious virus. "Generally, I give about two masks to each person, and more to taxi drivers and bus drivers because they will inevitable be in contact with many more passengers,” Li said.

The story of Li Hui immediately went viral on Chinese social media and his deed of giving away 20,000 masks to the public for free has won high praise from netizens. In fact, Li did not realize that he had already become a cyber celebrity. He only had a simple idea in his mind -- he hopes the coronavirus can be conquered quickly and wishes all the best to everyone around him, to Wuhan and to the entire country.