41: Chapter 41 Dior Special Day

It was two in the morning when he returned to the hotel.

The Parisian night sky was cast in a faint orange hue by the city lights.

He didn't turn on the lights; he sat on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window, opened his laptop, and the Logic Pro icon waited quietly in the Dock.

He clicked it, created a new project file, put on his headphones, and let his fingers rest on the MIDI keyboard.

Sophie said, "You didn't say 'it will get better,' you were just singing, 'I am as sad as you are.'"

Then she continued her chemotherapy.

Neo-Chanson / Jazz / Chamber Pop

He played the first chord, E minor.

The root of the chord started at E, dropped a semitone to D#, and then dropped a whole tone to C#.

This was a path leading downward.

But it wasn't a fall; it was a sinking, sinking to the riverbed, only to discover that there was light at the bottom of the river too.

He played all night long.

When Jessica came in the morning, she saw Chen Mo sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, wearing his headphones, his fingers still resting on the MIDI keyboard.

The golden lights of the Eiffel Tower had gone out, turning it into a silent iron frame.

His laptop was on the coffee table, a complete song on the screen.

Jessica walked over and unplugged his headphones.

Chen Mo looked up, his eyes unfocused.

"You didn't sleep all night?" Jessica's voice was full of shock, thinking this person was unreasonable.

"I did, I rested for a while."

"What is this?" Jessica rolled her eyes. "You're pushing yourself too hard!"

"A song."

Jessica looked at the dozens of audio tracks on the screen, keenly sensing something, and asked, "Who is this for?"

Chen Mo didn't answer; he put his headphones back on and pressed play.

Jessica felt that at this moment, Chen Mo didn't look like a composed star, but rather a stubborn brat who wouldn't listen to reason.

She was young, yet she had painlessly become a mother figure.

Jessica took the monitoring headphones, listened to the end, was silent for a long time, and said, "What is this song called?"

The name Chen Mo gave this song was a French word.

"《L'Autre Rive》."

"What does it mean?"

"The other shore."

Jessica said in disbelief, "Your French is that good?"

Chen Mo hummed softly. In his previous life, he had passed French proficiency exams and had practiced with native French speakers for several years.

While Chen Mo was trying on his suit at the hotel, 《L'Autre Rive》 was released on global music platforms.

There was no hype, no teaser, and absolutely no promotion.

Chen Mo only posted one Instagram update with a photo of a streetlamp on the Pont des Arts.

The streetlamp in the early morning of Paris; there wasn't a soul on the warm, yellow-lit stone bridge.

The caption was just one line: "For Sophie, for everyone who feels trapped. Walk out, there is light outside."

Sophie replied underneath: "I heard it, I will live to be eighty."

The French went crazy.

Twenty-four hours after 《L'Autre Rive》 went live, its Deezer streams broke the all-time single-day record in France.

Forty-eight hours later, it debuted at number one on the French singles chart, and that was the overall chart.

A Chinese person wrote a French song on the Pont des Arts in Paris and debuted at number one on the French singles chart.

On the morning show of the French radio station France Inter, after playing 《L'Autre Rive》, the host was silent for five seconds, then said: "The title means 'the other shore' or 'outside,' but he isn't talking about the outside of Paris, but the outside of your own heart."

The French newspaper Le Monde published a music review with the headline: "A Chinese man, on the Pont des Arts in Paris, wrote a song that made all of France cry."

The first paragraph of the article read: "Chen Mo's French is very pure; there is a Seine River in his song. The Seine River at midnight, the streetlamp on the bridge, a French girl, an old poster. He wrote her into the song, and then all of France heard it."

The headline of Le Figaro was even more direct—

"The Other Shore: Why a Chinese musician understands the French heart better than the French do."

The article interviewed the music director of Deezer, who said something that was reprinted by media all over Europe:

"The French love melancholy, but our melancholy is the melancholy of cafes, the melancholy of cigarettes and red wine. Chen Mo's melancholy is different; there is a lamp in his melancholy. As you listen, you will find that streetlamp inside your own heart."

On Twitter trends, the hashtag #L'Autre Rive# surged to second place globally.

The number one global trend was #Chen Mo L'Autre Rive#, and the third was "Sophie."

Someone posted a photo of Sophie on the Pont des Arts on Twitter—

It wasn't clear who had taken it; it was blurry, and you could only see a girl in a gray coat holding a poster under a streetlamp, with a man in a black trench coat standing opposite her.

The caption for the photo was: "He took off his scarf, wrapped it around her neck, then he sang 《Stay》, then he wrote a new song, and then all of France heard it."

Sophie herself replied under this tweet: "The scarf is still with me, I've washed it, I'll return it to him next time."

This reply was liked over 400,000 times, and countless netizens cried out in envy.

Chen Mo's Instagram follower count grew from 43 million to 51 million within 72 hours after the release of 《L'Autre Rive》.

Of the 8 million new followers, nearly 3 million were from France.

French comments flooded the comments section.

Some were asking "Where can I buy the piano sheet music for L'Autre Rive?" while others were saying "I stood by the window for ten minutes after listening to this song and realized the sky outside is blue."

There were also people translating his lyrics, translating the French lyrics into English, then English into Chinese, and then Chinese into Arabic.

An Algerian fan replied with an Arabic comment that was translated into English and pushed to the very top: "In Algiers, we also have a Pont des Arts; tonight I will go there to listen to this song."

Daniel took a screenshot of this comment and showed it to Chen Mo.

"Your song made an Algerian run to a bridge in the middle of the night just to stand there."

Sophie posted an Instagram update on the day 《L'Autre Rive》 hit number one, with a photo of the view outside her hospital room window.

On the windowsill was a small pothos plant, its leaves turned a translucent green by the light outside.

The caption was in French, which translated to: "Last year, I was inside listening to 《Stay》; now I am outside listening to 《L'Autre Rive》. I have decided to try to live to be eighty."

Chen Mo replied underneath: "Eighty isn't enough."

Sophie replied: "Then ninety."

This interaction was screenshotted and uploaded to Weibo, where the trending topic "Chen Mo Sophie Ninety" surged into the top ten.

In the comments section, someone said, "He is bargaining with a girl with cancer, making her live ten years longer."

Someone said, "He didn't write a song; he wrote a second life for someone."

Scott called from New York, his voice carrying a rare sense of quiet.

"I listened to 《L'Autre Rive》."

Chen Mo said, "Hmm."

Scott paused for a moment and asked, "What were you thinking about when you wrote this song?"

"I was thinking, if I hadn't walked that path that night and hadn't met Sophie, I might never have known that someone was looping my songs on the way to chemotherapy, or that someone had decided to live ten years longer because of me."

"Now you know."

"Now I know," Chen Mo said, leaning back in his chair. "So I wrote 《L'Autre Rive》, not just for Sophie, but for those who are waiting for spring."

Scott was quiet on the other end of the line for a long time, then he said, "You've changed."

His tone was filled with the emotion of seeing his own child suddenly grow up.

"How have I changed?"

"Before, you wrote songs to prove yourself. From 《Stressed Out》 to 《Flowers》, every one of them was proof—proving that you could."

"《L'Autre Rive》 is different. There is no 'me' in this song."

Scott's voice became very soft as he sighed, saying with gratification, "You finally don't need to prove yourself anymore."

"Scott Braun." Chen Mo suddenly called his name very formally.

"What?" Scott asked in confusion.

Chen Mo's voice became very solid as he said, "Thank you."

Scott was silent for a good while before letting out a distinguished chuckle.

"...You're welcome."

At this moment.

Daniel was directing two tailors from the Dior Haute Couture atelier, unfolding the suit as if it were a priceless treasure.

"Chen, look at this." Daniel's voice carried a pilgrim-like reverence. "The New Look silhouette from Mr. Dior's time; for you, they specifically recreated the 1957 pattern."

"Purely hand-embroidered; every bead on it was sewn on in an atelier next to Notre-Dame."

The black wool suit was cut with extreme sharpness, the shoulder lines as crisp as a blade. There were no superfluous, flashy decorations, only a small line of gold text embroidered on the inside of the collar—

"Pour Chen, l'âme de la musique." (To Chen, the soul of music.)

Chen Mo stood up and let the tailors dress him.

He raised his hands and moved his shoulder joints, feeling the precise tailoring flow with his movements.

"How is it?" Daniel asked nervously.

"Very comfortable." Chen Mo looked down at the exquisite button on the cuff, his fingers gently brushing over it. "Lighter than I thought. It really is a masterpiece."