“Takeout” Medicine

"Rules and regulations, please understand." Security guard Lao Wang repeated this phrase expressionlessly, like a robot with a preset program. In his hand was the takeout—a small package of antipyretic medicine, ordered by the guests in room 308 of the hotel.

Room 308 was occupied by a young couple and their two-year-old child, who had a persistent high fever. The delivery person had brought the medicine to the hotel entrance but was stopped by Lao Wang.

"Please, I beg you, my child has a high fever and needs the medicine urgently," the young father pleaded, his voice hoarse and tearful, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

Lao Wang still shook his head, "The hotel has regulations that do not allow any takeout to enter, this is for the safety of all guests."

"Safety? My child is about to burn up!" the father shouted desperately, trying to rush into the hotel lobby.

Lao Wang's colleagues swarmed over and stopped him outside.

The hotel lobby was magnificent and luxurious, the crystal chandelier sparkling dazzlingly, and the uniformed staff moved back and forth, everything in perfect order, as if it were a world apart from the anxious calls outside.

The young mother held her child, his face flushed with fever, his small body twitching slightly. She looked at the closed glass door of the hotel, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.

Lao Wang stood there meticulously, his eyes passing over the glass door, looking at the sign on the wall that read "Customer First," a faint smile appearing on his lips.

"How about you order another runner?" Lao Wang suggested mechanically, "Have the runner deliver it to the hotel's designated drop-off point, and then you can pick it up yourself."

The young father seized at the lifeline and immediately took out his phone to reorder.

Half an hour later, the father finally received the medicine. After the child took the medicine, he gradually calmed down.

In the evening, Lao Wang finished his day at work as usual and went home. He took a takeout iced beer from the refrigerator, turned on the TV, and a hotel promotional video with warm background music was playing. He looked at the happy faces of the children on the screen, as if he saw his own children, who were already established and no longer needed his concern.

The TV screen switched to a missing persons program.

"Missing person: Wang Xiaoming, male, seven years old, went missing near Chimelong Hotel in this city, at the time of missing he was wearing blue dinosaur pajamas, carrying..."

The beer in Lao Wang's hand fell to the ground with a "thump," and he was stunned. Those dinosaur pajamas, wasn't that the style his son loved most as a child?

He looked more closely, and the child's photo, his eyebrows, his nose, all looked just like...just like himself when he was young.

At this moment, his phone rang, it was a call from the hospital, and a hurried voice came from the other end: "Are you the guardian of Wang Xiaoming? Please come to the hospital as soon as possible, the child's condition is not optimistic, he has a high fever...the medicine from the takeout..."