I followed the ambulance in a panic and rushed Melvin and Sharon into the ER. In the vehicle, I frantically tried to explain the situation to the doctor.

"Oysters! They ate oysters!"

The doctor's expression turned grave, and he immediately began preparing for emergency treatment.

However, once we got to the ER, Tyler pushed ahead of me and grabbed the doctor's white coat. "Doctor, they just ate some not-so-fresh seafood. I saw what they ate. It was just some shrimp and shellfish. It probably caused severe food poisoning and an allergic reaction!"

He deliberately left out the most critical detail about the oysters.

The doctor glanced at his chef's uniform, hesitated for a moment, then chose to believe him.

He ordered, "Treat it as a severe food allergy and acute gastroenteritis first! Get the antihistamines and prepare for stomach pumping!"

Yet, after they started the IV, Melvin and Sharon's condition continued to deteriorate rapidly. They even began showing symptoms of nerve paralysis in their limbs.

The doctor in charge of the resuscitation was sweating profusely, muttering under his breath, "This isn't right. Allergic reactions aren't this severe."

Just then, the heart monitor let out a sharp, piercing alarm.

I could not take it anymore and shoved Tyler aside. I rushed to the doctor, shoving my phone with the photo in his face.

"They ate oysters! Raw oysters that weren't cleaned properly! Don't you understand?!"

The doctor looked at the photo of the poorly prepared oyster dish, and his face went white as a sheet. He immediately dropped the allergy medication and shouted for a specialist.

"Quick! Get anesthesiology and the ICU! Prepare the toxin antidote! The patient has tetrodotoxin poisoning!"

The entire ER erupted into chaos as doctors and nurses ran around frantically, preparing to rush the patients to the ICU.

Just as the medical team confirmed the treatment plan and was about to administer the critical life-saving drugs, Tyler, that bastard, suddenly "helpfully" spoke up again.

"Doctor! Wait a minute! I just remembered!"

He grabbed the doctor's arm with an urgent expression on his face. "I-I think I heard the patients mention something when they were chatting at the restaurant. T-They have severe allergic reactions to a lot of common medications!"

The busy, stressed medical staff immediately stopped what they were doing. To be safe, they had no choice but to perform an emergency allergen test on the two elderly patients.

This back-and-forth cost another full 30 minutes of critical rescue time.

I was shaking with rage, wishing I could strangle this lying piece of trash right then and there.

Just then, Vivian finally arrived after finishing her interview, fully made up and dressed impeccably. She did not even glance at the ICU warning lights as she walked straight to Tyler and pulled him into her arms, her face full of concern.

"Tyler, are you okay? Did they scare you? They didn't give you a hard time, did they?"

Tyler immediately acted like he found his protector and whined pitifully to her. He even pointed at me, his voice tearful. "Vivian, he was so mean just now. He kept yelling at me! I was so scared."

Vivian immediately cooed at him soothingly. "It's okay. Don't be afraid. As long as I'm here, no one can bully you."

Then, she turned and glared at me furiously. "Ezekiel, what's wrong with you?! Tyler came here out of the goodness of his heart to help, and you're taking it out on him?! He's just an apprentice, so what does he know? How does it make you a man to yell at him? If you have a problem, take it out on me!"

I looked at this absurd scene unfolding before me and felt completely heartbroken.

I practically shouted, "Vivian! Even if it's my parents lying in there, don't you care at all whether they live or die?!"

Vivian was startled by my yelling, then curled her lip in disdain and straightened the collar of her dress. "What are you making such a fuss about? Life and death are normal. What's so shocking about that!"

As soon as she finished speaking, there was a click. The red indicator light above the ICU suddenly went out.

The doctor walked out looking exhausted, pulled off his sweat-soaked mask, and shook his head heavily at me. "I'm sorry. We did everything we could. The two elderly patients missed the optimal window for treatment, and the toxins spread too severely to control."

My head buzzed, and I froze.

When Vivian heard this, not only did she show no trace of sadness, but she seemed to relax as if a burden was lifted, letting out a long sigh of relief. She took Tyler's hand, turned to leave, and her voice even carried a hint of cheerfulness.

"Well, they're dead now. It's got nothing to do with us anymore. Let's go. I don't want to stick around and catch whatever bad energy this place is giving off."

I handled Melvin and Sharon's funeral arrangements all by myself. I contacted the funeral home, ran through all the tedious paperwork, ordered the urns, and scheduled the cremation.

Throughout the entire process, Vivian did not call once. It was as if the deceased were just strangers who had nothing to do with her.

However, she posted something on her social media. It was a photo of her and Tyler at an upscale bar, with the caption: [Taking out the trash and welcoming a new beginning.]

At the crematorium, we already reached the stage where the bodies were about to be cremated.

Just then, Vivian showed up with Tyler and a few of her kitchen staff. She was wearing an expensive Chanel suit with flawless makeup, completely out of place with the solemn, sorrowful atmosphere.

She walked straight up to me and slammed a document in my face. "Sign it."

The paper cut my cheek, bringing a sharp sting. I picked it up and saw it was a divorce agreement.

The terms were outrageously harsh: I had to leave with nothing, and all my assets would go to her as compensation for her "reputational damage."

The reason given was that my parents died at her restaurant, causing damage to the establishment's reputation. It seriously impacted her career as an award-winning chef.

Vivian stood there with her chin raised arrogantly, her voice cold as ice. "I worked my ass off for ten years building my career. Cloud Nine was about to get its star rating, and then your two hick parents completely ruined it! Now, everyone online is saying my restaurant killed people! Do you know how much money I've lost? Do you know how badly my reputation has been damaged?"

She hissed, "This is all the bad luck your family brought! If you don't compensate me, who will?"

Tyler stood behind her, chiming in with a snide, mocking tone. "Ezekiel, Vivian's being very generous. Not making you pay damages is already pretty nice of her. Look at yourself. You have no money or connections. You're just dead weight hanging around Vivian. Don't you think you should have some self-awareness and leave? Stop dragging Vivian down!"

I was shaking with rage, staring at Vivian's heartless expression. "Vivian, do you have any conscience left?! My parents! No, your parents! They worked hard their whole lives for us. They came all this way to see you, and you killed them! Now you want me to leave with nothing? Is this how you treat them? Is this how you honor them?!"

"Shut up! Don't mention those two old geezers of yours in front of me!"

Vivily exploded in fury. She stepped forward, raised her hand, and slapped me hard across the face.

The sharp crack echoed as a burning pain spread across my cheek. "What right do you have to talk to me about conscience now? You're just a pathetic man who lost his parents!"

She signaled with her eyes, and the burly cooks behind her immediately stepped forward. They grabbed me like I was a rag doll and pinned me against the cold wall.

Vivian seized my hand, pried open my fingers, and forcibly pressed them onto the signature line of the divorce agreement. After it was done, she pulled out her handkerchief again and vigorously wiped her hands.

She picked up the agreement with my fingerprint on it, blew on the ink to dry it, and finally smiled with satisfaction.

She glanced at the bodies about to be pushed into the cremation chamber and said contemptuously to the crematorium worker nearby, "What are you standing around for? Hurry up and burn them. They're just two dried-up corpses with no value. Don't waste our taxpayers' electricity."

With that, she intimately linked her arm with Tyler's and strutted out.

After walking a few steps, Tyler looked back and gave me a mocking smile. I watched them disappear through the doorway, then slowly straightened up against the wall.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, pulled out my phone, and called Melvin's brother, Felix Gardner.

"Felix, it's me, Ezekiel. The funeral's all arranged. I'll send you the location and time in a moment. You can notify the relatives to come to the funeral I'm holding for Melvin and Sharon."

Remembering how Melvin and Sharon treated me like their own son, even better than they treated their biological daughter, I used my life savings to buy them a peaceful plot at a cemetery on the outskirts of town.

I personally chose the headstone, which was engraved with their names and featured photos of them smiling their brightest smiles.

I had Felix notify all of Vivian's immediate and extended family to come to see them off one last time.

Before the funeral began, I was adjusting the sound system to play the funeral music. Suddenly, there was a harsh whistle, followed by the sound of dogs barking, growing closer and closer.

Tyler appeared wearing a gaudy designer outfit, leading several large dogs on leashes as he swaggered over.

Vivian, heavily made up, followed behind him with a gleeful, malicious smile on her face.

"Oh wow, this is so serious! How boring!" Tyler said in a mocking tone, drawing glares from several relatives.

He did not care at all and unclipped the leashes from his hand. "Go on, babies!"

The dogs, freed from their restraints, immediately went wild in the small cemetery, running amok. They dug at the freshly turned soil with their paws, chased and tore apart the flowers, and wrestled on the ground, turning the scene into complete chaos.

"Tyler! Stop it!" I roared at him to control his dogs.

He just smirked and shrugged. "Oh come on, Ezekiel, don't be so uptight! The dogs are just being playful. They want to get close to your parents!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a massive dog lifted its hind leg and took a long, satisfying piss right on the brand-new headstone. The yellow liquid ran down the black marble surface, and Sharon's kind, smiling face in the photo became utterly defiled.

Another dog even took a massive, steaming dump right in front of the grave, and the stench immediately spread through the air.

Several older relatives were so furious they almost fainted on the spot.

I was about to rush over to stop it when Vivian blocked my way. She looked at the disgusting scene and, instead of stopping it, burst into laughter.

"Tyler, your dogs are so smart. They even know how to pay respects at a funeral. They're even bringing 'gifts'! Way more thoughtful than some ungrateful people!"

Her words were clearly aimed at mocking me.

In the chaos, the largest dog suddenly rammed into the stone platform holding the urns.

Two loud bangs echoed as the two heavy urns fell to the ground. The lids shattered open from the impact, and the ashes spilled everywhere, scattering in the wind.

In an instant, the mad dogs trampled all over them with their paws.

Watching this devastating scene, Vivian actually applauded. "See, that's more like it! That's what I call returning to nature! They were just two old farmers who scraped by off the land anyway. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Getting mixed with dog waste and buried into the ground like this is real natural burial!"

Just then, there was a commotion behind us.

Vivian's uncles, aunts, and extended relatives from her hometown, dozens of them, finally arrived. They stood frozen in shock as they saw the cemetery turned into a disaster zone.

Broken urns lay open on the ground, ashes scattered everywhere, and the entire site was destroyed.

Felix, a rugged man in his 50s, trembled with rage. He pointed at the headstone stained with dog urine and shouted at Vivian with a shaking voice.

"Vivian, have you lost your mind?! What are you doing to your own parents' graves?!"