Metal Snake

Lunar New Year fell on Jan 27. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Loong).

Snakes do not explain themselves. Quietest in the meeting and busiest afterwards, they can cut to the point in one sentence if you ask, and they usually wait for you to ask. Small shifts in a room register fast, sometimes before the person involved notices their own change of manner. They read as cool and slightly apart. The truth is that the distance protects their attention: inside is livelier than it looks, and once they open the door for you the conversation runs past midnight. They are not being mysterious for effect; being read too easily feels like being handled.

Xin is gold hammered thin, Si the snake that travels low and sheds its skin. Heat softens the metal until it can be pressed like wax. People like this are malleable, picking up the manner of whoever is near, changing shape with the room. They are sensitive and adjust the moment a tone shifts. That makes them easy company, and also easy to press into someone else's mold. They pick up another person's accent and gestures convincingly, and need effort to find their own again.