Closer to Revealing My True Self-Chapter 62 - 59 Shut up_1

Therefore, Cheng Si set a new goal for himself. The first snake that the expedition found last year was a silver ringed snake, and he hoped to find one too.

Firstly, as the top of the ‘national server,’ mentioning a silver ringed snake had prestige—it was better than water snakes or grass snakes.

Secondly, he had experience catching silver ringed snakes. Even though they were venomous, Cheng Si wasn’t too wary of them.

The team had established a rough route before setting off, and by evening, they would pass a place with a water ditch, where Professor Zhou had said they might find snakes active at night.

The others in the team chattered about where and what species the next snake they found would be.

Feng Yi, uninterested in their discussions, carried a bag and held a pair of tongs, picking up trash.

Nowadays, almost every scientific expedition team entering the woods would collect the trash they encountered along the way in garbage bags. Once a bag was full, they would place a signal transmitter on it for a garbage collection person or an intelligent device to retrieve.

At the edge of the nature reserve, during routine activities cooperatively organized with various schools, students were tasked with picking up trash after entering the forest.

Especially plastic waste.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is frёeωebɳovel.com.

Different plastics have different lifespans in different environments. For instance, some plastic products might persist for hundreds of years at sea, while the same products buried underground could last for tens of thousands of years or even longer.

Guided by smell, Feng Yi located more trash.

He parted the vegetation, revealing a strip of plastic on the surface of the soil. After taking a photo, he pulled up the plastic strip, “There’s also a plastic bottle underneath. Teacher Lei, should I take a photo of this?”

Teacher Lei came over to see and said, “Yes, take a picture! The plastic bottle is almost entirely buried in the soil. Let me adjust the camera, and then we’ll dig out the bottle… Li Han, you do the digging.”

Teacher Lei asked Professor Zhou’s student, Li Han, to do it because Feng Yi, being a non-professional, might damage something during the digging, which would interfere with data collection.

In a short time, Li Han dug out the plastic bottle buried in the soil. It had no distinctive markings, but the cap had a brand logo on it.

“It must have been buried here twenty or thirty years ago, maybe even longer. This brand went out of business during the period of climate anomalies,” said Li Han.

“Twenty or thirty years, and it shows no sign of decomposition,” Teacher Lei continued filming.

“Plastic bottles. Humans create them but fail to dispose of them properly,” Professor Zhou sighed with a shake of his head.

Plastic, a product of industrial civilization, brought the glory of petrochemicals.

The N billion tons of plastic produced in the past, present, and future will be dispersed worldwide, becoming a part of the “Anthropocene” and preserved in the geological record of this era.

Plastic products break down into fragments, from microplastics to high-molecular organic materials, and eventually back to oil and natural gas.

Born from petroleum, returned to petroleum.

What’s that saying, “Nature’s mighty power will eventually take over everything.”

Professor Zhou watched Li Han place the excavated items into a sample bag, “Unable to decompose in twenty or thirty years, but ultimately, this planet will digest them all. It’s probably inconsequential to the planet itself—it has existed for over four billion years and has gone through so much.

“What’s affected may only be the life that survives on this planet, including humans themselves.

“Plastic particles are everywhere, even inside our bodies. As humans stand at the top of the food chain, the process of bioaccumulation means our bodies will build up a lot of undigestible microplastics, some of which will be expelled and some not. In the end, humans bear the brunt of it all…”

“Hey, heard there’s a new degradable microbe that’s been successfully cultivated?” asked Professor Zhu.

“It’s been cultivated, but the efficiency is still low,” Researcher Xie replied.

After that, Professor Zhou and his colleagues started talking about those strange microbes, how they had discovered a few more, how they cultivated some deliberately, and the pros and cons of artificial interference…

Then on to how the lab uses catalysts under specific conditions to break down plastic into simple hydrocarbons…

After that, Feng Yi couldn’t understand anymore.

Forget it, just honestly pick up trash and catch snakes.

Feng Yi, alone, picked up more trash in the mountains than the other eight people combined.

Professor Zhou laughed, “We’ll have to give you a raise!”

Feng Yi gave a polite smile and thought to himself: I don’t want money; just give me a few more points!

Around 8 o’clock in the evening, the team stopped for a break; they would rest here tonight.

Of course, Professor Zhou and his colleagues wouldn’t have the same physical stamina as Feng Yi and the other young guys in their twenties with robust health.

Feng Yi set up the tents while Cheng Si said goodbye to Professor Zhou, mentioning that he’d take a look around.

“Don’t go alone, Feng Yi, go with him. Look out for each other,” Professor Zhou said.

“OK!” Feng Yi put down what he was doing and joined Cheng Si to check the surroundings.

Once the tents were out of sight, Cheng Si flashed his flashlight around and asked, “Where do you think snakes would be? That water ditch up ahead is too long, and there are frog calls everywhere, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there are snakes.”

Pretending to be professional, Feng Yi shone his flashlight around and pointed in a direction, “Over there.”

“How did you judge that?” Cheng Si inquired.

“Guessed,” Feng Yi replied.

“Believe you? Bullshit!”

Cheng Si cursed with a laugh and headed in the direction Feng Yi pointed.

Having seen Feng Yi catch blind snakes, Cheng Si trusted Feng Yi’s judgement on this matter. It was definitely more reliable than his own blind searching.

“If there’s a snake, what kind do you think it is?” Cheng Si asked.

“A banded krait,” Feng Yi guessed.

“Haha! I hope so too! I’ll take your word for it! Don’t fight me for it later, all right?” Cheng Si quickened his pace, leaving Feng Yi behind.

Feng Yi wasn’t worried; there weren’t any other dangerous creatures around, and for a banded krait, Cheng Si should be able to handle it.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before he heard Cheng Si’s excited voice.

“Wow! There really is a banded krait! It’s mine… Fuck! Feng Yi, come help!!”

Feng Yi hurried over at the call.

He saw Cheng Si holding onto the snake’s tail while the banded krait desperately tried to slither into a patch of grass ahead, and Cheng Si was laying on the ground, sliding toward a ditch.

Feng Yi rushed to grab Cheng Si.

Cheng Si shouted, “Nevermind me, grab the snake, I’ll get up myself!”

Hearing this, Feng Yi didn’t let go right away but tossed his flashlight aside to grab the banded krait from Cheng Si’s hand.

As Feng Yi bent down, his phone slipped out of his pocket, falling onto the slope’s grass, and started sliding towards the ditch.

In a moment of urgency, Feng Yi bit down on the snake’s tail to free his hand and scrambled to save his phone.

Steve, who had come over at the noise, was speechless: “…”

For God’s sake, spit it out!!!