Chapter 379: Baby (3)
Everly felt that she hadn’t exactly been prepared to welcome a new life into the world. Yet strangely, whenever she thought about a baby hidden inside Kesuye’s brood pouch, her heart felt as though it had fallen into a pile of sun-warmed cotton. A warm, fluffy force seemed to hold her up, leaving her whole body light and buoyant, as if she might float away into the sky at any moment.
No matter what the baby looked like when it was born, she thought, she would love it dearly.
After all, it was the crystallization of her and Kesuye’s love.
Come to think of it, was their current home a little too small now? Should they expand it? Oh, right. Since they were going to have a baby, wouldn’t it be better to add another layer of railings around the balcony and windows? There weren’t any early-childhood books in the study. Maybe she could start buying picture books now. And clothes for the baby, too. She still didn’t know whether it would even be able to wear them, but there was certainly no harm in preparing some in advance…
The more she thought about it, the more urgent everything seemed. Everly suddenly sprang out of bed and spun around twice like an idiot. Then she checked the time.
Well, would you look at that—it was already ten at night.
And given how remote this gas station was, anything she wanted to do would have to wait until tomorrow.
So she climbed back into bed, leaned over Kesuye’s belly, and gazed down at it fondly for a long while. She carefully stroked it twice, then leaned over and gave it two little “mwah mwah” kisses. After that, she moved upward, gently tilted Kesuye’s pointed chin toward her, and planted several hearty kisses on the corners of his mouth.
She couldn’t help laughing as she kissed him.
Starting the very next day after learning that Kesuye was pregnant, Everly busied herself making preparations.
The house at the gas station was more than spacious enough for Everly, Kesuye, and Old John, but adding another child would make things a little cramped. As luck would have it, the house was already quite old, with outdated facilities, so they decided to take the opportunity to renovate and replace everything at once.
There was a shelter hidden beneath the house, so to avoid exposing it, Everly and Old John had to oversee the entire expansion and renovation themselves from start to finish.
Besides the house itself, Everly also bought a huge amount of baby supplies, including clothes, pants, towels, diapers, toys, early-learning materials, and more, filling the shelter’s storage room to the brim.
Of course, they couldn’t neglect the nutritional needs of the baby’s father during pregnancy, either.
Kesuye wasn’t human. Even while carrying a baby, his physical condition was still far beyond that of an ordinary human. He could run and jump as usual, and doing a hundred push-ups in one go was no problem for him.
However, during pregnancy, the baby would draw a large amount of nutrients from the father’s body, and it was difficult to replenish all those nutrients through an ordinary human diet alone. So, when Kesuye was two months pregnant, at his request, he and Everly temporarily moved to a seaside villa in Gilosha.
As for the gas station, which was still undergoing expansion, the younger version of Old John was left in charge for the time being.
The villa was right by the sea, with an excellent location. Whenever Kesuye felt that he was lacking nutrients, he could simply transform into his whale form and head into the ocean to hunt for food.
He had been craving squid that day, so he had gone deep into the ocean to catch some. It was simply too dark and deep down there. Even with Lamia’s blessing, Everly, being human, couldn’t stay in the deep sea for very long. So she hadn’t gone with him. Instead, she had taken advantage of the quiet time at home to deal with some work from the bulletin board.
She hadn’t expected Kesuye to be so clingy. They had only been apart for an afternoon, yet the moment he returned, he kept fussing over her and insisting that she put down her work and go to bed with him.
Everly had been worn down by his persistence. Besides, she really hadn’t made any progress on the case she was working on, so she half-heartedly went along with him and joined him in bed.
By this point, Kesuye had been pregnant for more than five months.
Thanks to the carefully planned nutritional diet, a small, fist-sized bump had finally appeared inside what had originally been a flat brood pouch.
The shape of the bump resembled a curled-up embryo. If one looked closely, they could even see the fish-shaped body gently expanding and contracting with each breath, as though it were sleeping.
To be honest, seeing something like that appear on a man’s abdomen was somewhat eerie. But Everly thought it was perfectly fine. After all, it was nurturing a new life. Whenever she thought about that tiny, gently moving little thing being her own child, a deep tenderness welled up inside her, and she couldn’t help wanting to lean over and kiss the baby, then kiss the baby’s hardworking father too.
Unfortunately, Kesuye wasn’t very fond of letting her look at his belly.
“It doesn’t look good like this.” He covered his abdomen with a piece of fabric, guarding it as though his life depended on it. His voice was thick with grievance. “What if you remember what I look like now and start disliking me later…?”
“How could I? You’re like this because you’re carrying our baby. How could I possibly dislike you?”
“Who knows? A lot of human husbands on TV say the exact same things to their wives. Then before long, they cheat on them, fool around outside, and end up unable to stand the sight of the wives they once loved…” Kesuye lowered his eyelashes and muttered gloomily. The more he spoke, the sadder he became, until two pools of tears gradually gathered in his beautiful eyes.
Everly had a strong suspicion that his pregnancy hormones were getting to him.
From around the third month of pregnancy onward, Kesuye’s emotions began to become unstable. At times he was overly sentimental, while at others he was irritable and quick-tempered. Everly looked up information about human pregnancy and learned the reasons behind it, after which she diligently took on the role of emotional first responder.
Whenever she saw Kesuye crying, she would immediately come over like a seasoned professional, first kissing his eyes and licking away his tears, then pulling him into her arms. While stroking his head, she would talk about the future with him, chatting about things they could do after the baby was born to distract him.
“Education is very important. Look at you—you suffered because you didn’t have enough education when you were younger. You were so silly and always got b*llied. So our baby absolutely has to go to school. It would be even better if they could make a few friends. Don’t you think?”
Kesuye gave a quiet “Mm” through his thickly nasal voice.
“And then, once the baby is old enough to remember things, we should take them out more often and let them see the world. We should teach them that people can be dangerous. What do you think?”
“Okay. I’ll protect our baby.”
Everly smiled and poked the tip of his nose. “You cry this much yourself. Will you really be able to protect our baby?”
“Everly!” Kesuye glared at her in embarrassment and annoyance. He opened his mouth and bit down on the fingertip in front of him.
He didn’t bite hard. It was more like sucking on and kissing her finger than actually biting it, but Everly pretended it hurt and pulled her finger back slightly with an “Ow!”
“What a fierce whale. Why are you biting people?”
“Because I’m an orca!” Kesuye declared fiercely.
“Wow, I’m terrified. Are you planning to kill people with your tears?”
“Everly, you’re so mean!” Kesuye gave a little huff. With another push of his body, he bit down on Everly’s neck.
Everly didn’t struggle. Instead, she raised both hands and loosely wrapped them around Kesuye’s shoulders. And so, the ferocious bite that had been about to descend instantly changed into something else entirely—warm breath against skin, lingering friction, and heated panting…
……
Despite Everly repeatedly reassuring Kesuye that she didn’t care about his changing figure, by the sixth month of pregnancy, Kesuye still transformed into his mermaid form. Other than going into the sea to hunt for food, he spent all his time soaking in the bathtub, and was extremely reluctant to turn back into human form.
His mermaid form had a brood pouch too, located right at the junction between his waist and fish tail. Kesuye’s tail was naturally rather plump, so even with a baby tucked inside, there was still nothing noticeable from the front. It remained beautifully streamlined.
Everly felt that he was rather pitiful and tried to persuade him to come out many times, but Kesuye simply refused to leave the tub. His attitude was more resolute than ever.
With no other choice, she moved her laptop and other belongings into the bathroom and kept him company there. While he soaked in the water, she worked beside him. At night, Everly stayed in the bathroom as well, simply laying out a makeshift bed on the floor so Kesuye wouldn’t feel lonely and become overwhelmed by his emotions in the middle of the night, turning into a sobbing pregnant husband again.
And so, after spending more than four months living in the bathroom, Kesuye finally gave birth when his pregnancy was nearly ten months along.
Or rather, the baby in his brood pouch had finally finished developing and crawled out of the pouch.
It was an adorable, chubby little baby girl, as white and delicate as jade and snow… provided one ignored the tiny pink tentacles sticking out from her lower back.
Everly gave her a thorough examination. Aside from the tentacles, the baby was, overall, perfectly human-looking, which came as an enormous relief to her.
The baby’s hair combined traits from both her father and mother. It was an extremely pale platinum-blond, while her eyes were a complete copy of Everly’s—brilliantly blue, large and round. Her skin was as white as snow, and when the sunlight fell upon her, her entire body seemed to glow. She was practically a little angel who had fallen from heaven into the mortal world.
And so, from the very first moment Everly saw her, she discarded every name she had previously come up with and named the baby “Angela.”
Angela had been restless from the moment she was born.
As a tiny newborn whose nervous system was not yet fully developed, her little pale feet could only kick and flail about randomly. She was nowhere near capable of standing or walking upright, yet she had already somehow taught herself to crawl using her tentacles.
This crawling was entirely unconscious. Whoever was caring for the baby had to keep a particularly close eye on Angela. Otherwise, the baby would remain lying on her back and use the tentacles on her lower back to crawl all over the place like a spider, getting herself covered in dust and grime.
The only person who could make the baby stop and stay still for a while was her father, Kesuye.
Because Angela wasn’t an ordinary child. Human formula couldn’t fill her stomach. She needed a more nutrient-rich liquid food, and Kesuye was the only source of it.
He had started producing milk.
After the baby’s birth, Kesuye’s body underwent a dramatic transformation. The brood pouch that had housed the baby disappeared, leaving his abdomen flat once again, while his chest gradually began to swell.
From that point on, he started going into the deep sea to hunt frequently, averaging three or four trips a day. By the time he returned home with his stomach full, Angela, who had spent the entire time crawling all over the floor, was already so hungry that she looked ready to waste away.
After spending most of the day working hard beneath the sea, Kesuye didn’t even take a break. He scooped up his hungry little baby and headed straight for the bedroom.
Once inside, he undid his clothing. Without needing anyone to teach her, the baby immediately scrambled forward with all four limbs, her tentacles flailing wildly. In just a few movements, she had climbed onto Kesuye’s chest, latched onto one side, and eagerly began nursing. When one side was empty, she immediately switched to the other.
This tiny little bundle, soft as cotton, was practically a little glutton!
After finally eating her fill, the baby yawned. The tentacles on her back curled forward and wrapped around her body like a blanket. At last, she closed her eyes and settled down obediently to sleep.
Kesuye cradled the baby in his arms and gently patted her back to help her burp. He then gazed at Angela’s rosy little face for a long while, reluctant to look away. Only when hunger began to gnaw at his own stomach did he finally place the baby back into Everly’s arms, leave the villa, and swim toward the deep sea once more.
From the moment the baby was born until she turned one, Kesuye repeated this routine over and over again.
During that time, however, his frequent hunting nearly depleted the deep-sea fish around Gilosha. Everly’s strength was limited, making it difficult for her to reach into the deep sea. In the end, it was Lamia who lived in the Lemot Desert who personally came over. Using her power, she summoned a huge number of deep-sea creatures to replenish the depleted waters, ensuring that Kesuye and Angela wouldn’t go hungry.
After she turned one, the baby weaned early. She could eat ordinary human food and had also learned to retract the tentacles on her back. Like a human child, she wobbled around on her two little legs.
She was exceptionally intelligent and learned things incredibly quickly. Before long, she had already learned to call them “Daddy,” “Mommy,” “Grandma,” and “Great-Grandpa.” No matter who she was facing, a sweet smile was always plastered across her little face. Just like her name suggested, she was a little angel in everyone’s heart.
And the parents who had this little angel as their daughter were, without a doubt, the happiest people in the world.
[FIN]
**TN
The End. 🙂
