Baby Bonus (TV series)

Baby Bonus (simplified Chinese: 添丁发财) is a Singaporean Chinese drama which was telecasted on Singapore's free-to-air channel, MediaCorp Channel 8. It made its debut on 30 September 2009 and ended on 30 October 2009. This drama serial consists of 23 episodes, and was screened on every weekday night at 9:00 pm.

Cast

Main cast

• Felicia Chin 陈靓瑄 as 黄丽萍 Huang Li Ping
• Tay Ping Hui 郑斌辉 as 李家成 Li Jia Cheng
• Jesseca Liu 刘芷绚 as 郑晓阳 Zheng Xiao Yang
• Darren Lim 林明伦 as 郑国安 Zheng Guo An
• Leroy Chng 庄恩扬 as Olympic

Supporting Cast

• Apple Hong 洪乙心 as Angel
• Terence Cao 曹国辉 as Simon Koh 许晴光
• Xiang Yun 向云 as 黄美玲 Huang Mei Ling
• Zhu Houren 朱厚任 as 郑发材 Zheng Fa Cai
• Lin Meijiao 林梅娇 as 龙宝音 Long Bao Yin
• Jerry Yeo as Ah Xiang

Synopsis

As the boss of a flourishing furniture shop, Zheng Fa Cai (Zhu Hou Ren) is known to be a businessman who built up his business from scratch. He leads a blissful and peaceful life with his wife, Long Bao Yin (Lin Mei Jiao), and two children, Guo An (Darren Lim) and Xiao Yang (Jesseca Liu).

On the contrary to the Zhengs, life has not been smooth-sailing for Huang Mei Ling (Xiang Yun) and her family. Her good-for-nothing husband, Ah Nan (Richard Low) constantly badgers her for more money and often beats up both mother and daughter. Sick and tired of this nonsense, Huang finally decides to escape from home with her daughter Li Ping (Felicia Chin) to be free from Ah Nan’s clutches.

Due to a lack of proper upbringing, a brash Li Ping gave up on her studies and became an unwed mother. She lost all focus in life and idles her time away. With no proper job, Li Ping mixes around with bad company and can be often found at the pool parlour. To support her malingerer daughter and grandson, Mei Ling takes up two jobs and becomes the sole breadwinner of the family.

Young and wild, Li Ping finds her son, Olympic, a burden and often leaves him in the care of her neighbour, Lee Jia Cheng (Tay Ping Hui). He helps them with the responsibility of caring for baby Olympic and lessens the heavy burden of the Huang women.

When Li Ping discovered that Fa Cai used to be her mother’s first love, she begins to make use of his soft-hearted nature for her own benefit. She lands herself in hot soup and chalks up a debt. With nobody to turn to, she looks Fa Cai up and attempts to sell Olympic to him to solve her money woes.

Fa Cai mistakes Li Ping to be his daughter and cannot bear to see his grandson in the hands of other people. He arranges for Olympic to be adopted by Guo An but was initially rejected by the latter. Upon knowing that Olympic is his father’s grandson, Guo An decides to adopt the baby despite objections from his wife, Angelina (Apple Hong). Unwilling to comply, Angelina decides to walk out on the family, putting the couple’s relationship to a test.

Due to his haphazard working habits, Guo An starts to face difficulties at work. He is unhappy with his father’s trust in Jia Cheng and both father and son start to clash against one another, causing a crack in their harmonious familial relationship.

Jia Cheng has been working at Fa Cai’s furniture shop since he was 16 years old and has been carrying a torch for Xiao Yang. Due to his low financial status and inferior education background, he feels incompatible and does not dare to confess his feelings for her. Unlike Jia Cheng, Xiao Yang looks upon him as a brother and does not harbour any special feelings for him.

Xiao Yang runs a restaurant together with her boyfriend, Simon (Terence Cao). Unknown to Xiao Yang, Simon is also the restaurant’s landlord and she is shocked when she discovered that he has been trying to raise the rent of the restaurant. Simon maintains that they should keep their love life out of work matters and rationalizes his actions. Disappointed in his backhanded ways, Xiao Yang decides to part ways with him and focuses all attention on her business instead.

Unwilling to let Xiao Yang’s efforts go down the drain, Jia Cheng sells his house and buys over the shop space for her restaurant. Unable to see Jia Cheng lead a life in the doldrums, Li Ping stands up for him and informs Xiao Yang of everything Jia Cheng has done for her.

Touched by his feelings for her, Xiao Yang decides to try to date Jia Cheng. Despite his success in winning her over, Jia Cheng discovers that Xiao Yang is still deeply in love with Simon and rejects her good intentions. Both Mei Ling and Jia Cheng found out that Li Ping sold Olympic to the Zhengs. Both of them were sorely disappointed and with her actions and decide to give her the cold shoulder. In a bid to get closer to her grandson, Mei Ling becomes Olympic’s nanny in the Zheng household.

Guo An forces Angelina to take a break from work after the latter sustains an injury. During her rest, Angelina discovers that she is not indispensable to the company and realises that life is not all about working. With their newfound perspective on life, the couple reconciles back together again. Together with Angelina’s support and help, Guo An gains a deeper insight to his father’s actions and intentions, and mellows down. Upon seeing a change in his son’s mentality and attitude, Fa Cai decides to leave the company in his care.

Ignored by her own mother, Li Ping starts to regret for her actions after Bao Yin bars her from visiting Olympic. She decides to turn over a new leaf and begins taking on odd jobs to earn her own keep in hopes to redeem Olympic from the Zhengs with her own money.

After Bao Yin discovers Mei Ling’s past with Fa Cai, she leaves home in a fit. Ah Nan gets wind of the entire matter and thought that he’s being made a cuckold. He holds Olympic hostage and demands money from Bao Yin and Fa Cai while threatening Li Ping. Unwilling to put up with his demanding requests, Li Ping informs the police who eventually arrests Ah Nan. Mei Ling takes the opportunity to personally explain her part of the story to Bao Yin and proved to her that Li Ping is not Fa Cai’s daughter.

Although the misunderstanding has been cleared, Fa Cai can’t help but feel a sense of loss upon discovering that Olympic is not his grandson. At that moment, Angelina announces her pregnancy to the family, adding much cheer and joy to everyone’s surprise.

Star Awards Nominations

• Xiang Yun was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress award in 2010 Star Awards but lost to Constance Song in The Ultimatum.