Although Jiale is a poor student and is constantly in trouble, he shows high intellect and cunning in his obsessive calculation of past winning lottery numbers, which he catalogues in his schoolbook during class. One day, after being taunted by another boy that his maid only loves him because she is paid to, he pushes the boy into the bathroom wall causing him to split his head and bleed. Threatened with expulsion, and the school's administration unable to contact his parents, Terry arrives to plead for mercy on his behalf. After some resistance, the principal appears moved as Hwee Leng arrives angrily dispatching Terry and berating Jiale. As Hwee Leng and Jiale leave the administration office, Hwee Leng aggressively reminds Terry that she is Jiale's mother before snatching Jiale and walking away. Given a punishment of public caning rather than expulsion, Terry arrives to the school auditorium, powerless, as she watches Jiale being whipped in front of the student body.
After the family car is sold for scrap, the family acknowledges they can no longer afford to keep Terry employed as Jia Le's father has been recently fired from his job due to an accident tripping over eggs while attempting to find a suspected intruder. Desperate to keep Terry, Jia Le uses his savings to purchase lottery tickets but loses. He becomes tearfully despondent, cutting a lock of Terry's hair during a tense goodbye before she is sent home.
Holding on to his cassette player, Jiale listens to music with his father on a bench in the hospital as Hwee Leng gives birth to a baby girl.