50: Chapter 50 The Cat Artist

Chen Mo froze for a moment, then typed a few words: "Where are you flying to?"

Taylor replied instantly: "Tokyo, the first stop of the 1989 tour, May 5th."

"Are you ready?"

"The stage is ready, the band is ready, the costumes are ready." She paused for a moment. "There's one guest act that hasn't been decided."

Chen Mo leaned against the window and typed: "Didn't you say the guest list is decided months in advance?"

"That's for others; you're different." Taylor sent a voice message, her voice very soft. "My tour runs from May to December. There's one stop in between where I hope you can come. Any stop is fine, as long as you come."

Chen Mo held the phone to his ear. After listening to the last sentence, he replied with a voice message: "Which stop is closest to Los Angeles?"

Taylor replied instantly: "Los Angeles, late August, Staples Center, the same venue as the Grammy Awards."

"Okay."

"You agreed?"

"I agreed."

"I knew you would agree." Taylor's voice carried a hint of obvious smugness, and she sent a row of little sun emojis.

Ed Sheeran also sent a photo—an Orange Cat lying on the soundhole of a Martin travel guitar, its paws resting on the strings, eyes squinted into slits.

"It knows how to play the guitar now. This morning, it stepped on a G major chord, smoother than anything I've written."

Chen Mo replied: "G major? Are you sure it didn't just accidentally hit it while lying down?"

Ed Sheeran replied instantly: "Accidentally hitting it is also creation. The melodies of three songs on my first album were all created by accident."

"Those three songs became hits later."

"So this cat has a limitless future."

Chen Mo leaned against the headboard and asked: "What have you been busy with lately?"

Ed Sheeran started a video call directly; in the background, there was the sound of guitar plucking and the occasional meow of the Orange Cat.

"Writing songs, the third album. I've written a lot, and scrapped even more. After you helped me find that inversion for 'Photograph' last time, I realized something—"

"I used to rely too much on guitar fingerings when writing songs. My fingers were used to pressing in those positions, and my ears would just follow. You were right; changing instruments makes the melody line come out on its own."

"So now, when I write songs, I put the guitar next to the cat. Whatever chord it steps on, I use that chord to write."

"Is it effective?"

"Yesterday it stepped on an E-flat major 7th, and I wrote a whole song."

Chen Mo held the phone to his ear. After listening, he asked: "What's the song called?"

"I haven't decided yet, but the chorus has the Orange Cat's purring. I recorded it with a microphone and mixed it into the string backing."

"Send the demo to me."

Ed Sheeran sent an audio file; the filename was "Cat Purr_demo_0416".

Chen Mo downloaded it, put on his headphones, and pressed the play button.

The intro was acoustic guitar, an E-flat major 7th chord, Ed Sheeran's signature fingerstyle.

In the verse, his voice was very low, like he was telling a bedtime story.

When the chorus came in, there was a layer of very light, low purring hidden in the string backing, with a frequency of about 40 to 50 Hertz.

This clever idea was exactly the same as his approach in 'Stay,' where he used a refrigerator compressor as a backing track.

After listening, Chen Mo said: "The frequency range of the purring—drop it another two semitones; it's clashing with the bass root note."

The video revealed Ed Sheeran's signature... messy red hair.

"I knew you'd say that. I'll send it to you after I fix it."

"What's this song called?"

"It should be 'Supermarket Flowers'," Ed Sheeran paused. "It's written for my grandmother; she passed away last month."

Chen Mo held the phone, his voice low: "She will hear it."

Ed Sheeran picked up the cat and held it right up to the screen.

May 20th, Shanghai.

When Jessica came out of Pudong Airport, she took a deep breath of Shanghai's air—humid, with the muddy, fishy scent of the Huangpu River.

"A bit better than London."

She was wearing a beige trench coat and said: "The procedure for the Shanghai launch event is the same as in London."

The venue for the Shanghai launch event was the Bund.

The stage was set up by the Huangpu River, with the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower, and Shanghai Tower standing in a staggered arrangement of heights.

The neon lights on the opposite bank of the river shone through the evening mist, illuminating the entire river into a flowing ribbon of colorful light.

When Chen Mo walked onto the stage, the river breeze blew, lifting the hem of his suit slightly.

He was still wearing a custom Dior black suit, with a Cartier on his left wrist, which complemented the suit perfectly.

Liu Hu was waiting for him in the center of the stage.

"Today, the OnePlus 2 is officially launched in China. London was the global debut, and Shanghai is coming home."

Liu Hu turned around to face the side stage.

"Coming home means inviting family on stage. The global ambassador for OnePlus, Chen Mo."

Chen Mo walked out from the side stage. All the phones in the audience were raised simultaneously, and the sound of shutters was as dense as a rainstorm hitting the surface of the Huangpu River.

He walked to the center of the stage and stood beside Liu Hu.

The river breeze blew from the Huangpu River, lifting the hair on his forehead.

He waited for the sound of the shutters to die down before speaking.

"I am from Hunan. Are there any fellow Hunan folks here?"

Someone in the audience shouted "Yes," mixed with a few cheers in a Hunan accent.

"I went from Changsha to Beijing, and from Beijing to Los Angeles. I've traveled a long way, but every time I return and stand on the soil of any city in China, I think of the cured meat my mother smokes."

The audience laughed.

"I'm not joking. The cured meat my mother smokes uses pork from local pigs back in Changsha. She hangs it on the balcony to air-dry and smokes it with pine branches. That flavor—I could never forget it."

He paused, and the river breeze blew the hem of his suit.

"When the people from OnePlus approached me, I said, I don't speak for any brand, but if your product is like my mother's cured meat—not cutting corners during the process—then I'll stand here."

He turned slightly to face Liu Hu.

"OnePlus's 'Never Settle' isn't just for show. It's because the things they hold in their hands haven't reached a level that satisfies them yet. I know many people like this, and I'm the same way in the recording studio."

The audience was very quiet, listening to him speak.

The night breeze from the Huangpu River blew in from the front of the stage, making the edges of the giant screen sway slightly.

"The sound of China, the quality of the world. This sentence isn't just an advertising slogan; it's what I think in my heart when I'm in the recording studio, at the Grammy Awards, and on the world stage."

"OnePlus is the same way. After Mr. Liu heard this, he decided to use my words as the slogan..."

After the launch event, Jessica was waiting for him backstage.

"Brother Mo, tonight all the big screens on the Bund are showing you. This is the level of respect OnePlus is giving you."

Chen Mo walked out of the venue. The architectural complex of the Bund was lit up with golden contour lights, and then he saw it—

All the outdoor big screens on the Bund—Aurora, Citibank, the Bund Center.

All switched to the same image at the same time.

He was standing under the gray sky by the Aranya seaside, facing the sea, his trench coat hem blowing in the wind, along with the words, "The sound of China, the quality of the world."

Chen Mo picked up his phone and took a picture, with a caption of just one line: "The sound of China, the quality of the world."

Three minutes after posting, the likes exceeded one million.

Liu Hu replied underneath: "OnePlus's intelligent manufacturing, Chen Mo's voice—both are made in China."

Jay Chou replied: "Yo, not bad."

The official Pechoin Weibo account replied with a supportive emoji.

Back at the hotel, Chen Mo opened Ed Sheeran's chat box again.

"Is 'Supermarket Flowers' fixed?"

Ed Sheeran replied instantly, sending an audio file; the filename was "Cat Purr_demo_0418_final".

Chen Mo downloaded it, put on his headphones, and pressed the play button.

The intro was acoustic guitar, E-flat major. After the frequency range of the purring was dropped by two semitones, it no longer clashed with the bass root note.

On the final chorus, Ed Sheeran's voice receded to the background, and the Orange Cat's purring was pushed to the front for four bars, then faded out.

After listening, he replied to Ed Sheeran: "Final. You can call it final."

Ed Sheeran didn't reply for a long time. After about a few minutes, he sent a voice message.

Chen Mo clicked to play it. In the background, there was no guitar sound, no meowing from the Orange Cat, only very light breathing.

"When I was writing this song, I kept thinking about what my grandmother would say if she heard it. She didn't understand music; she only listened to hymns in church."

"When I was a kid and played guitar for her, she said it sounded good, but her eyes were looking out the window. Later, when I stopped playing, she would ask me, 'Why aren't you playing today?'"

"I said, 'You're not even listening.' She said, 'I am listening; I'm just not listening with my eyes.'"

Ed Sheeran paused for a moment before continuing.

"I sampled her voice. It was a clip she had recorded on an answering machine before—'Ed, dinner is ready, come down and eat.' I put it at the end of the intro, cushioned with piano. Did you hear it?"

Chen Mo played the audio file again.

At the end of the intro, underneath the low register of the piano, there was a layer of very, very light human voice.

An old woman, with a Southwest English accent, the end of her sentence rising slightly.

He replied to Ed Sheeran: "I heard it. She called your name."

Ed Sheeran replied with a cat emoji.