Chapter 336: The Whole Internet is Guessing, the Mysterious Guest!

Five days later!

New York, Metropolitan Opera House!

At 7:00 PM, guests began to enter one after another.

Amidst the jubilation, the annual gala of UnitedHealth Group was about to begin!

And tonight, Chu Chen would also appear here!

During the days he had disappeared, the whole world had been waiting for him!

Discussions about him on the internet had never cooled down!

The aftershocks of the British Museum incident were still spreading; those returned artifacts were still undergoing authentication in various countries' museums: the Benin Bronzes of Nigeria, the Fate Goddesses Relief of Greece, the fragments of the Rosetta Stone of Egypt—

Each one appeared repeatedly in the news, and every appearance brought Chu Chen's name with it!

But Chu Chen himself was like a drop of water evaporated into the air, without a trace.

No one knew where he had gone.

Because of the program rules, the Program Team had no camera authorization until the real crime began.

But this could not stump the fanatical fans!

There was a subreddit dedicated to tracking him called "FindChuChen," and registered members had exceeded four million within three days.

The moderator pinned a post titled: "Day X of Chu Chen's Disappearance—Comprehensive Clue Summary."

The post organized all known information: the last location he was spotted in London, the photo of the fingerprint on the glass curtain wall of the Bloomsbury Building, the meteorological data from that night at Russell Square, and even that post he made on Weibo with only a period.

Over four thousand replies, and not one could pinpoint his location.

On Twitter, the hashtag #WhereIsChuChen had been on the global trending list for five consecutive days!

Someone posted a tweet: "Where the hell is this guy?"

This tweet was retweeted two hundred thousand times.

Not joking, a massive number of people in the comment section expressed the same sentiment—they weren't chasing a criminal; they were chasing a TV series without a fixed release schedule.

And the protagonist hadn't appeared for five days...

The trending list on Weibo was even more outrageous!

The entry "Chu Chen's Next Move" hung on the list for three days straight without any new news.

Netizens' guesses were varied: some said he would go to the Louvre Museum because the security at the Louvre was tighter than at the British Museum, making it a bigger challenge!

Some said he would go to the Egyptian Museum to "send home" the remaining parts of the Rosetta Stone!

Some said he would make the President's desk disappear on the White House lawn!

Others said he had already returned to Zhonghuaxia and was eating barbecue at a night market in some small city, waiting for the heat to die down!

A finance blogger with six million followers posted a long Weibo, analyzing Chu Chen's potential targets from a business perspective.

He said: "Chu Chen's two actions have one common characteristic—the 'stages' he chooses are all locations with strong symbolic significance!"

Las Vegas represents greed and desire, and the British Museum represents the scars of colonial history.

Following this logic, his next target should be a landmark with similar global symbolic significance.

I bet ten Bitcoins, it's Wall Street."

The most liked reply in the comment section was: "Show us the Bitcoin first."

An account claiming to be a member of the Magicians Association posted a video, frame-by-frame analyzing every move Chu Chen made in London, trying to find clues for his next action. The video had over thirty million views.

Analyzing to the end, that person said to the camera: "I don't know what he's going to do next, but I know one thing—no matter what he's going to do, we are not ready."

This sentence was clipped into a GIF and went viral on various platforms.

The most fanatical speculation came from TikTok!

An influencer with twenty million followers released an eight-minute video titled "I Cracked Chu Chen's Next Target"!

In the video, she used a whiteboard filled with arrows and circles, reasoning for a long time like a detective in a crime show, and finally concluded: Chu Chen would be at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and turn the tower into a tree!

This video received four million likes; some in the comment section said "You're crazy," some said "What you said makes some sense," and some said "If it really turns into a tree, I'll livestream myself eating my phone."

Everyone was guessing.

No one guessed right.

Until today!

7:30 PM!

New York, Metropolitan Opera House.

The facade of this building was white travertine marble, with five tall arched windows lined up, looking like a huge, glowing beehive against the night sky.

A giant banner for UnitedHealth Group hung above the main entrance of the theater—a deep blue background with the white company logo, and a line of large gold characters below: 2026 Annual Gala · Creating the Future Together.

The red carpet was laid down from the steps, extending onto the sidewalk.

Security personnel wore black suits with earpieces, standing every five meters.

Invited guests filed out of stretch limousines—insurance executives in suits and leather shoes, jewelry-clad regional sales champions, and rising stars heavily cultivated by the company.

Flashbulbs popped, with a dedicated team of photographers responsible for capturing every moment of entry.

The air was filled with the scent of expensive perfume and the dampness after the rain.

It had rained during the day, the ground was still wet, and the water stains on the red carpet shimmered under the lights.

Inside the theater, all two thousand eight hundred seats were full!

The stage setup was luxurious.

The background was a huge LED screen with a resolution so high that one could see every pixel glowing independently while standing off-stage!

The screen played a loop of UnitedHealth's brand promotional video—cured patients, smiling doctors, warm hospital rooms, and young people running in the sunshine.

The total power of the sound system reached fifty thousand watts, with low-frequency units hidden under the stage; it was said that during testing, it shook a mirror off the wall in the backstage dressing room.

The lighting system was handled by a veteran Broadway lighting designer, with front light, side light, top light, backlight, and follow spots—the various lighting fixtures totaled over three hundred!

The gala began promptly at eight o'clock!

The opening was a symphony performance; the resident orchestra of Lincoln Center took the stage and played an adapted version of The Stars and Stripes Forever, followed by speeches from company executives, a review of the annual performance, and the presentation of the Best Regional President award!

The proceedings were not essentially different from any other company annual meeting, except that every detail was refined to the extreme.

Time quickly arrived at nine-forty!

A song and dance performance ended.

The dancers on stage wore shimmering costumes and exited from the side curtains the moment the lights dimmed.

The image on the LED screen switched to a deep blue starry sky background, with countless points of light flickering slowly, like a stage waiting for the protagonist to appear.

The host walked slowly onto the stage.

He wore a black tuxedo, his bowtie was tied perfectly, and his hair was set in a meticulous slicked-back style with hair gel.

After walking to the center of the stage, the host finally stopped, faced the two thousand eight hundred people in the audience, and smiled slightly.

"Thank you to our excellent dancers."

His voice spread throughout the theater via the sound system, clear and warm, like a piece of silk heated to just the right temperature: "The performance just now showcased the infinite longing our UnitedHealth people have for the future; let us thank them once again with applause!"

Applause rang out; it was not long, but it was polite enough.

The host waited for the applause to die down, took two steps forward, and stood at the edge of the stage.

His gaze swept from the left side of the auditorium to the right, and then swept back from the right side:

"Ladies and gentlemen, coming up next is the mystery guest of our gala tonight." His voice lowered a little, his speaking speed slowed a bit, and his expression feigned mystery, "To be honest, the level of mystery for this segment isn't even clearly written on my teleprompter."

A low ripple of laughter broke out from the audience.

"What I can tell you is this—this mystery guest is not on this program list, nor is he in any of the materials we printed out in advance. I only learned this secret one minute ago myself!"