Fire Rat

Lunar New Year fell on Feb 10. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Pig).

People born under the Rat tend to read a strange room before they speak: where the exit is, what is sitting on the table, who is pretending to be comfortable. They rarely talk over anyone, then replay the whole evening on the way home, keeping a private ledger of who is annoyed with whom. Give them a blocked door and they will find the side entrance rather than stand in the queue. The part few people see is that all that scanning is tiring. Shutting the door at night, eating cold leftovers straight from the fridge, is its own kind of relief.

Wu is earth that can hold its temper, Zi the rat that hides in the dark and moves very fast. Fire touches the water's surface and goes off at once, bright and then gone. People like this stay quiet, then at some point erupt and settle a matter in a few hard sentences. They do not lose their temper often, and one outburst is remembered for years. Afterwards they regret it. They are usually the easiest people in the room, which is why the outburst catches everyone off guard.