In chapter 39 of Dream of the Red Chamber, the poor country woman Liu Laolao comes back to the Jia mansion, where she was once given twenty taels of silver. She brings dates, squash and wild greens. “This year we harvested two more shi of grain, and the melons and vegetables did well. These are the first ones picked. We did not dare sell them. We kept the best for the ladies to taste.”
In chapter 119 of the 120-chapter edition, the family has fallen. Wang Xifeng’s daughter Qiaojie is about to be promised to a foreign vassal. Liu Laolao, her godmother, is announced at the back gate. She offers to take the girl to her village and hide her there.