Mom's Winter Solstice 'Poisonous' Noodles

Mom's Winter Solstice 'Poisonous' Noodles Plot:

On Winter Solstice night, Xiaotang, who worked overtime until midnight, rushed home with her mom's WeChat voice message: "I simmered your favorite bone soup noodles, waiting for you." But when she opened the door, a pungent odor wafted from the kitchen, and the noodles in the bowl were an unusual dark brown. She snapped, "What did you put in the noodles?" only to see mom clutching a bottle of 'soy sauce' with a blurry label, eyes like a guilty child: "I remembered you loved two spoonfuls when you were little..." When she found the Alzheimer's diagnosis in the drawer, Xiaotang's hands shook—mom was diagnosed last week but hid it to avoid worrying her. The 'poisonous seasoning' was mom mistaking detergent for her daughter's favorite old soy sauce. The steam from the bone soup blurred her vision; she suddenly recalled elementary school winters, when mom tucked her frozen red hands into her own arms and said, "I'll cook noodles for you for a lifetime." This 'poisonous' bowl of noodles is the last bit of "the habit of loving you" that mom is fighting to keep.