Bryce's smile froze. "You have parents? Why have you never mentioned them before?"

Well, it was because my parents weren't human. I came from a family of seahorse beastmen. In our society, the male seahorses were the ones who gave birth. So, when I announced that I was going to marry a human and have a child with him, my parents kicked me out without mercy. They believed that I was committing an atrocious act.

I replied, "I have too many siblings, so my parents usually just let us be. So, it's not necessary to split our expenses since I have parents too, right?"

Bryce said to me, "Linny, I don't want money to cause any unhappiness between us in the future. I think splitting our expenses is still the better choice. Let's stick to that."

And so, I pondered for a moment and suggested, "That's fine too, but verbal agreements don't hold any significance. We should put this in black and white."

Bryce grabbed some paper and a pen and wrote down the details of our agreement swiftly. He seemed to be afraid that I would change my mind judging from how fast he wrote.

Five minutes later, he handed me the paper.

After reading it, I asked him, "You only wrote about the expenses and the housework. Where's the part about having a child?"

Bryce was confused. "We'll split the costs of having a child equally, including your prenatal check-ups and any surgeries. Don't worry, I'll make sure you won't get the losing end of the deal."

"It's not just about the costs. Do you realize how much having a child can harm my body?" I questioned.

Bryce's expression shifted upon hearing that. "You don't expect me to pay for everything, do you? The child isn't just mine."

"Well, the child isn't just mine either. Why should I carry the baby for ten months and possibly go under the knife while you get to have an easy time? Shouldn't I carry the baby for five months and you do it for five months in turn?"

Bryce was stunned for a few seconds. Then, he suddenly burst into raucous laughter. "If I could carry a child, I would definitely carry it for five months for you."

I urged, "Alright, then write it into the agreement. I'll carry the baby for five months, and you carry it for five months."

Bryce assumed that I was just having mood swings due to pregnancy hormones. So, he wrote that line at the very end of our agreement. Once he was done writing, we both signed it.

I was delighted to see his signature on the piece of paper. The next moment, I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Dear, I'll take good care of you when you're pregnant in the future."

Bryce laughed heartily. "You're being silly, Linny. How could a man get pregnant?"

Why couldn't he?

The seahorse clan had evolved to the point where our bodies could change according to our will. We could get ourselves pregnant, make men pregnant, or even transfer a half-developed baby from our body into a man's.

Since we were supposed to split everything evenly, we might as well go all the way.

After signing the agreement, Bryce began calculating the cost of tonight's dinner with me.

"We had the empanadas I brought back from my mom's for dinner tonight. You ate four of them. They cost two dollars each, so that's eight dollars. Venmo me that amount."

In my past life, Bryce was like this too. He calculated every expense down to the decimal point. Even if his mother came over and cooked for us, he would still charge me for the meal.

Of course, I felt somewhat upset about this deep in my heart. But then, I decided that I should just put up with it since I had agreed to live this way.

As I considered his actions from a different perspective now, I saw how petty of a man Bryce was. The way he noted the number of empanadas I ate showed how calculative and stingy he was.

Without a word, I transferred the money to Bryce. The moment he heard the ping on his phone, he beamed with joy. "I'll go wash the dishes. Linny, you take out the trash."

"Wait a minute," I spoke up.

Bryce looked at me in confusion.

I chuckled. "You've calculated your share, but we haven't calculated mine yet. Sure, your mom made the empanadas, but when you brought them back, they were raw. I cooked them. Shouldn't the labor cost be taken into account too? That'll be ten dollars.

"As for the cucumber salad you ate, the cucumber costs three dollars. The apple cider vinegar would be roughly three dimes, and the onion is half a dollar. I didn't eat any of it. Plus, I washed your socks just now. That's another ten dollars for labor.

"So, altogether it's $23.80. Venmo me that amount, please."

Bryce's expression soured considerably. "Linny, we're a married couple. Is it really necessary to split everything down to the pennies?"

I flashed him a good-natured smile and asked, "Weren't you the one who said that we should split our expenses evenly to prevent conflicts between us?"

Since Bryce had suggested splitting our expenses in the first place, he couldn't come up with anything to argue with me. He could only transfer the money to me as he was told.

After completing the chores, I went to take a shower. I was currently 18 weeks pregnant, and my belly wasn't showing yet. Although pregnancy usually lasted ten months, I knew I would give birth after 38 weeks.

So, next week would be the best time to transplant the baby. For that, I needed to implant the brood pouch into Bryce as soon as possible.

Implanting the brood pouch was quite simple. I put on some sexy lingerie and sprayed on some perfume. As I stepped out of the bathroom, I saw Bryce working on a table on his computer.

It wasn't until I pressed my body against his back that I noticed he was actually making a price list for household chores. My interest in seducing him immediately dwindled by half. But since this was the only way to implant the brood pouch, I had no choice but to wrap my arms around his neck and softly call out, "Honey…"

When Bryce turned around to look at me, his eyes lit up. I had to admit that Bryce had a very attractive face. Back then, I fell for him at first sight because of that face and married him without a second thought.

Without hesitation, I kissed him.

Bryce resisted and reminded, "You're still pregnant, you know."

"It's been four months, so it's fine," I replied.

Upon hearing me say that it was fine, Bryce got into it. After a passionate lovemaking session, Bryce fell into a deep sleep. The next morning, a pink mark appeared on his belly. That was the mark left by the implanted brood pouch. I felt satisfied with the work I'd done.

However, even with that, there was a risk of failure. To be safe, I did implantations on him for four consecutive days. Bryce was exhausted and kept complaining.

He said to me, "If we keep this up, I'm going to start charging you. After all, you're the one enjoying it while I'm the one doing all the work."

I was speechless for a moment. But when I saw that the mark on his belly had turned into a mature shade of purple, I smiled again.

Bryce noticed this purple mark but assumed it was from my kisses and didn't think much of it.

A week later, I suggested taking Bryce to meet my parents.

Bryce asked, "Why the sudden meetup? Didn't we agree that we would each handle our own parents?"

I replied, "My parents have some free time now and want to meet you. It's only polite that we go, don't you think?"

Bryce was still reluctant to go and wanted to say something. Nevertheless, when I clarified that I had already prepared the gifts, he finally smiled and agreed to go.

When we arrived at my family's place, Bryce's eyes widened in disbelief. "Linny, is your family wealthy?"

I kept telling Bryce that my parents had a lot of children, so they didn't have time for all of us. Therefore, he assumed that my parents lived in some rural mountainous area with seven or eight kids and worked away from home all year.

Owing to this, he dressed quite casually when he left our residence that morning.

Technically, my family did live on a mountain—it was just that the entire mountain belonged to us. From the entrance of our property to the living area, we had to take a car.

During the ride, Bryce kept complaining that I should have told him sooner. "Why didn't you make it clear earlier? Look at how casually I'm dressed… I'm being impolite for showing up like this."

Oh, so he did know that he should dress up properly when meeting his wife's parents.

I said, "It's okay. My parents don't care about that."

I had hundreds of siblings. My parents didn't care about the character of their children's spouses—they only cared about their reproductive capability.

Bryce asked again, "Linny, do your parents own a lot of assets?"

"Well, they have some," I replied with a smile. "But I have many siblings, so each of us would only get under a hundred million."

A hundred million was a staggering amount for an average family. The moment Bryce learned about this, he seemed frustrated that he'd suggested splitting the expenses with me.

As soon as we met with my parents, my father wanted to check Bryce's pulse.

Bryce didn't understand why he would want to do that.

I explained, "My dad is an alternative medicine practitioner who has gained nationwide recognition. He usually only treats important figures."

Upon hearing this, Bryce immediately extended his hand.

My father seemed very pleased with Bryce. He nodded and muttered, "Not bad, not bad… Very good."

Bryce thought my father was praising his good health and looked very proud.

That evening, we stayed at my parents' manor. After Bryce fell asleep, they came over.

My mom looked at his body and laughed. "33, you've really found yourself a great free man. He has a naturally fertile body. How many brood pouches did you implant in him?"

"Four," I replied.

My mom said, "What a shame. You should have implanted a few more. But there's no rush. You can still take your time in the future. You did the best among your siblings."

Fewer male seahorses were willing to have children when it came to my generation. I was ranked 33rd in my family, but none of my older brothers or sisters had kids.

My father asked, "Did he agree to carry children?"

I took out the agreement with the terms clearly written and signed.

My father nodded approvingly. "Alright, I'll help you transfer the baby over right now."

A month later, Bryce's belly swelled significantly, and he gained 13 pounds. He thought it was because he had been overeating lately and started exercising intensely.

But no matter how much he exercised, it was futile and yielded no results.

One day, he felt the baby move.