Hardships and tears behind China's booming food delivery service

A deliveryman falls sideways on his scooter on a snowy day. [Photo from the web]

On his way back, Huang saw a critical comment the woman left on the food service app, blaming him because "the noodles stick together".

Huang said "tears slid down his cheeks" in the cold wind. He said he had suffered many hardships in his nearly three decades of life, but "he never felt so upset".

Who is the customer?

For couriers, weekends are the busiest time. "Why do so many people not cook for themselves?" Zhou Wu asked himself when he first entered the trade.

He found the answer later.

Once, he arrived at the door of a customer and knocked repeatedly, but no one answered. He dialed the customer's phone number, wondering if he went to the wrong building. Finally a man opened the door, angrily cursing Zhou for disrupting him while he was playing a video game.

Looking into the house, Zhou saw a messy room with the computer screen shining.

Over the following weekends, Zhou met similar customers - people who are busy working Monday through Friday but who stay at home to kill time on the weekend.