Accompanying Reading Era

This is a story about sacrifice and persistence, failure and courage, farewell and reunion. In 2005, four young people arrived in San Diego as study companions - Shen Yutong, Chen Ruoxi, Li Xinyi, and Lin Hao. They are wives or husbands, but not themselves. Shen Yutong was once a provincial TV host in the spotlight, but he put down the microphone and came to the United States to accompany him. She worked hard to complete her master's degree in media at UCLA, but encountered obstacles due to the countdown to OPT and the financial crisis. She cried again and again on Highway 5. Chen Ruoxi got married and studied with her, and switched from biology to MBA. From being unable to get a word in during group assignments to having a conference call while pumping breast milk after giving birth, she struggled through the gap between the workplace and childcare, and finally gained a firm foothold. Li Xinyi experienced a betrayal in her marriage and married Indian postdoctoral fellow Amit across the border with scars. She started a small business, packing wedding dresses in her garage and shipping them one by one across the United States, from eBay to Amazon. Lin Hao quit his high-paying job in Beijing to accompany his wife Su Xiaoman, but fell into depression due to the loss of his identity, language and self-worth. He eventually returned to China alone, leaving Su Xiaoman alone to complete his doctoral thesis late at night in the institute. After ten years of entanglement, some people put down their obsessions and returned to China to start from scratch, some found a balance between work and family, some turned their garage shops into cross-border e-commerce, and some said "I wish you happiness" on the day of divorce. They failed to become the people they originally imagined, but they became themselves. Those tears shed in a foreign land have become the hardest part of life. Dedicated to all reading companions who run for love and never give up.