Suddenly This Summer

The story is set in the 2000s, a time when students had to estimate their scores after taking the national college entrance examination in order to select and apply to universities. During this period, they were only allowed to select one first-tier university as their primary preference, and a second-tier or lower-tier university as their secondary preference. If they chose a first-tier university as their primary preference and failed to reach the required score, they could not apply for any other first-tier university. This is why in the story, when Zhang Yuan fell short of the required score by two points for Huaqing University, which was his primary preference, he had to settle for a local university that was his secondary preference.