Closer to Revealing My True Self
Chapter 281 - 208: Do Snakes Eat Starfish?_1

Chapter 281: Chapter 208: Do Snakes Eat Starfish?_1

Feng Yi was holding a sea star.

The one he had thrown for fun had already been tossed far away, so he had grabbed another, preparing to throw it as well. After a moment’s thought, however, he decided not to swim any farther.

Instead of swimming forward, he simply studied the sea star he was holding.

He had already seen this creature up close and from every angle in the small exhibition hall next to the dormitory area, and there were even diagrams of sea star anatomy on the wall. Naturally, Feng Yi wasn’t curious about its structure.

What interested him was whether sea stars were afraid of him.

Marine life mainly relies on the transmission of chemical information in seawater to search for and catch prey. Substances like amino acids, nucleic acids, and organic molecules, which are nearly invisible to the naked eye, can be detected by their sensory organs.

Changes in the chemical information in the water would cause them to exhibit different behaviors.

Behavior is an animal’s most direct response to stimulus changes.

Feng Yi wanted to see, if the sea star detected his scent, would it be stimulated? What kind of behavior would it display?

Feng Yi didn’t alter his shape, but his non-human scent permeated through the diving suit and dispersed with the seawater.

Through this, he attempted a close encounter and communication between "non-average human" and "marine life."

Although the diving suit limited him and the information molecules he emitted were not strong, the sea stars’ reaction was already obvious. Those around Feng Yi were exhibiting avoidance behavior, moving away from his location.

Feng Yi was surprised.

How strange. These sea stars were encountering this kind of signal for the first time in their lives, yet they all exhibited the same avoidance behavior.

Could this be the "fear ingrained in their DNA"?

Feng Yi looked at the sea star he was holding, his pupils turned into vertical slits and dilated due to the light, yet they remained upright ovals — completely unlike a normal human’s eyes.

There was no one else around; he could let his eyes change however he wanted.

"I really want to see what other important information is hidden in their DNA,"

Feng Yi thought, staring at the sea star in his hand as if trying to probe its innards through its epidermis.

While he was deep in thought, the communication device rang out.

Feng Yi came back to his senses and quickly connected.

"Feng Yi, where are you?" the diver on the other end of the line asked.

"Me? Just casually looking around nearby," Feng Yi looked around and couldn’t specify his exact location, but it couldn’t be too far, could it?

The two divers choked upon hearing this.

So casually "looking around nearby"?!

Do you have some apocalyptic understanding of the word "nearby"??!!

But, as long as he was safe, they slightly relaxed the tension they had been holding.

At this time, Feng Yi also realized from the tone of the divers that he seemed to have exceeded the range they found acceptable.

He had been swimming so excitedly that he hadn’t paid attention to what a normal person would consider distance.

But negligence was negligence.

"Sorry, I didn’t realize I had gone too far," Feng Yi apologized.

The diver’s tone softened as he asked, "How is it on your end?"

Feng Yi said, "Lots of sea stars."

"That figures, they’re still clustering. Are the sea stars surrounding you causing any tension?" another diver joked.

Feng Yi glanced around, "No, the atmosphere is quite... harmonious."

So harmonious that an open space had formed around him.

"Anyway, the interaction is pretty amicable," Feng Yi said.

As he spoke, he felt something odd in his hand and looked down.

Instead of holding a large sea star as before, only one of its arms remained in his hand.

Feng Yi: "???"

Sensing Feng Yi’s silence, the diver worriedly asked, "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing much." Feng Yi watched the sea star that had scurried away and released the remaining limb from his hand.

The diver wanted to remind Feng Yi not to keep straying further away, not to chase after animals in the water as it was easy to get lost. Straying too far could mean not being able to provide rescue in time in case of emergency. He was about to speak when he heard Feng Yi continue:

"Are you guys almost done over there? I’ll head back immediately."

"There’s still a bit of work to finish, but it won’t take long. You can come back now. Do you need any help?" the diver asked.

"No need, I’m already swimming back."

"Just don’t get lost, find the right direction," considering the young expert’s pride, the diver changed his phrasing, "and don’t rush, safety first. Stay in contact."

"Sure."

On the other end, after finishing the call, the two divers discussed Feng Yi.

"This expert seems a bit unreliable."

"His attitude is okay, not like another expert I met last time who was shouting even though he did something wrong."

"Do you think he’ll make it back smoothly?"

"Hard to say..."

Just as the conversation had begun, a bleep on the positioning device indicated a target light point.

Feng Yi had entered within a one-kilometer range.

Seeing this, the divers’ doubts and concerns eased somewhat.

"Looks like he didn’t swim out too far."

"Good sense of direction, didn’t swim off course."

The Feng Yi they discussed slowed down significantly as he returned, approaching within a kilometer, trying to stay close to the speed a normal human could achieve.

But in the eyes of those two divers, he was still very fast!

"Is this guy a flying fish or what?!"

"Can his body take this kind of swimming?"

When the two divers were about finished with their work, expecting that it would still be a while before Feng Yi got back, they were about to ask the expert group if they needed to supplement some data, when they saw Feng Yi’s figure.

"Are you okay? Get on the boat and rest for a bit," one diver said.

"No problem, shall we start setting the net now?" Feng Yi looked perfectly normal.

"Really okay?"

"Yes."

"Alright. But if you feel any discomfort, you must say something, don’t just endure it!"

"Understood!" Feng Yi gave an ok sign with his hand.

Seeing that Feng Yi really seemed fine, the two divers didn’t say any more and began their second task of the afternoon.

After Feng Yi returned, he became much more compliant, helping out however the divers told him to.

Since he was so cooperative and genuinely put in a lot of effort, the two divers didn’t fuss about him having swum far away earlier.

Young people are bound to be a bit impulsive; it’s normal, and since he hadn’t caused any trouble, they had no loss. Plus, Feng Yi knew he had been wrong and would pay more attention next time.

Task completed, the two boats returned.

There was still plenty of work after sailing back, but others were responsible for that, so Feng Yi didn’t interfere, not wanting to disrupt anyone’s efficiency.

Everyone was still by the coast and hadn’t returned to their dormitories. Feng Yi didn’t go back immediately either, but he couldn’t just do nothing, so he thought about finding someone to chat with.

Over with the expert group, Professor Ding and a few others were discussing matters related to sea stars. Feng Yi listened for a while but then left on his own accord.

The areas of expertise were different, as were the focal points of interest.

While several of them were discussing topics such as body wall polysaccharides and extracellular antioxidative activity when talking about sea stars.

Feng Yi, however, only knew whether they could be eaten here or there.

Not wanting to embarrass himself in front of that crowd, Feng Yi looked around and spotted Professor Li, who was quietly gazing at the sea lost in thought.

This professor wasn’t stern by nature but carried an air of concern for his country and its people.

Professor Li studied marine ecology and knew a bit more about sea stars than Feng Yi did.

Feng Yi approached. "Teacher Li."

Professor Li’s melancholic eyes cleared up, and he treated Feng Yi, the younger colleague, with a mild attitude. "What’s up?"

Feng Yi said, "I have a question. Do snakes eat sea stars?"

A look of surprise flickered across Professor Li’s face, as if he hadn’t expected Feng Yi to ask such a question.

Nevertheless, Professor Li patiently replied, "No, they don’t."

Pausing for a moment, Professor Li added, "To be precise, I can’t say for sure. Sea stars live in the ocean, they go through a larval stage in their development, and there might be some kind of sea snake I don’t know about that preys on them. But as for adult sea stars, to date, I haven’t seen any snake show interest in them."

Sea star larvae don’t look like they do now. During their bipinnaria larval stage, sea stars appear small and fragile.

Professor Li said, "Sea stars have more predators during their larval stage, but they greatly diminish once they reach adulthood. Therefore, when we consider methods of controlling sea stars, we also start at their larval stage to devise eradication strategies."

Feng Yi asked, "So you’re saying that there is no predatory relationship between snakes and adult sea stars?"

Professor Li pondered for a moment, then said, "Whether snakes eat adult sea stars can be analyzed from the perspective of snake feeding habits. Let’s not even talk about toxicity; adult sea stars have a flat body with spines, and their calcified ossicles aren’t very tough, so it’s difficult for smaller snakes to swallow. From the perspective of energy conversion, even if a snake could swallow it, a single sea star wouldn’t provide much energy."

"Furthermore, my research on snakes is limited, but I’ve heard that snakes have the ability to determine the head and tail of their prey, and when they eat something, they start from the head. I can’t imagine how a snake would begin to swallow a sea star, finding its head."

Professor Li looked at Feng Yi. "So, combining all these factors, I would speculate that no snake would be foolish enough to try eating it."

Feng Yi nodded, mulling over in his mind:

There’s no predatory relationship between snakes and sea stars, so they aren’t natural enemies.

But those sea stars are afraid of me, afraid to the extent that they avoid me en masse.

From this, it follows—

I have nothing to do with snakes!

I have no relationship with snakes, neither those on land nor those in the sea!

So, those sea stars are only afraid of me personally.

Feng Yi’s thoughts circled in his mind, then he spoke again. "I saw... some people catching sea stars, and the sea star severed one of its own arms."

Of course, he wasn’t going to talk about the things he had done!

There were so many boats fishing for sea stars lately, with people coming and going; it was just "something I happened to see."

Professor Li didn’t suspect anything.

"The behavior you’re talking about is self-amputation by the sea star, a common bodily reaction seen in predator-prey relationships. An arm that’s been severed will regrow eventually," Professor Li said.

"Do you mean that it senses a threat from a predator, so it self-amputates an arm? Like a gecko shedding its tail, a survival strategy to sacrifice a part to preserve the whole?" Feng Yi asked.

"Something like that. However, in the ocean, besides predators, if sea stars feel oppression from the external environment, they will exhibit this behavior too, such as when water temperatures rise, environmental pollution, parasitic or microbial infections, and so on. In cases where their body is harmed, they may self-amputate."

"I see."

Feng Yi considered the sea star that had self-amputated in his hand—was it a "fear etched into its DNA," or was it something else?

Was it coincidence, or was it inevitable?

It wouldn’t be hard to find out.

Catch a few more.