iPhone 7 on display in Apple Store
20 iPhones were sold by a woman in China so she could buy a house  Reuters

A woman in China convinced each of her 20 lovers to buy her an iPhone – in order to sell them so she would have enough for a deposit to buy her first home in the countryside.

The woman known as Xiaoli has sent China's microblogging site, Sina Weibo, into meltdown after getting 115,010 Chinese yuan – equivalent to £14,000 – from selling the phones to mobile phone recycling site, Hui Shou Bao, according to a report by BBC Trending.

More from IBTimes UK

Hashtag '20 mobiles for a house' quickly became the country's top trending subject and has been used more than 13 million times.

The story came to light on popular blogging site Tian Ya Yi Du under the pseudonym Proud Qiaoba.

Proud Qiaoba wrote: "Everyone in the office is talking about this now. Who knows what her boyfriends think now this news has become public."

Apparently, the woman in question from Shenzhen in southern China, does not come from a wealthy family. "Her mum is a housewife and her dad is a migrant worker, and she is the oldest daughter. Her parents are getting old and she might be under a lot pressure hoping to buy them a house... But it's still unbelievable that she could use this method!" Proud Qiaboa continued.

Although she found one fan who admired her tactics who said. "I can't even find one boyfriend. She can actually find 20 boyfriends at the same time and even get them to buy her an iPhone 7. Just want to ask her to teach me such skills."