Why does a search find * in every cell?

So continuing from my past problem which was solved by shg...

Now I have 300+ rows that look something like "3 * 5" but without an equal sign, so its not an equation or anything (and thats how i want it for now). And all I want to do is replace the * with an X. But when I do a simple find and replace, the entire cell becomes an x instead of just the *.

Also weirdly when I do a search, the search is finding a * in cells that don't even have the asterisk inside... Even just cells with only text...

Anyone can help me with another simple question? Sorry for the trouble!

Thank you again, my hero.