Fire Ox

Lunar New Year fell on Jan 29. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Rat).

Ox people have a certain thickness to them: good news and bad news both have to sink in before they land. While everyone else changes plans three times a week, they can stay with one unglamorous task for five years without announcing it or asking for credit. First meetings read as flat, with few words and a laugh that arrives half a beat late, but once they say yes you never have to ask again. What stays hidden is the stubbornness. Silence is not agreement; it usually means the verdict is already written.

Ji is soft soil that keeps whatever is put in it, Chou the ox that pulls the plough without a sound. Fire is covered by that earth and looks inactive while it keeps burning underneath. People like this endure a great deal and agree to everything, keeping the account privately. Then one small thing makes them explode and the room is stunned. It was never the small thing; it was all the earlier ones, none of which they forgot. They seldom refuse, agreeing first even when both hands are already full.