Wood Rat

Lunar New Year fell on Feb 15. 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.

Water moves underground at this hour, the mulberry drinks, and the leaves grow thick enough to feed a whole tray of silkworms. People like this carry something nourishing: they spend time listening, remember what others like, and leave the last piece on the plate for someone else. They are quick in the way of small night creatures, and know what a household is short of before it is said. They feed others until their own plot goes dry, and need something handed back.