Also called: Xiao ren wen · Villain line · Petty person lines · Backbiter lines · Slander lines

Where on the hand: At the very base of the index finger, on the Jupiter mount just below the crease where the finger joins the palm.

What it looks like: Short fine vertical lines standing side by side at the finger's root. Chinese practice counts them: up to three is unremarkable, four or more is the sign.

Read as vulnerability to slander, envy and office politics — the 'petty people' of Confucian vocabulary who work against one behind the back. Four or more lines is said to attract jealousy and malicious talk, especially in a workplace, and to require care in what one says about others.

Read with care: This is a marking that invites suspicion of colleagues; it is folklore, and should be presented as a note about workplace anxiety rather than as evidence that anyone is being plotted against. Correction: the diagnostic rule is wrong in both halves. The sources say 斜紋 (DIAGONAL, not vertical) and 多於四條 (MORE than four, not four or more).