Hearing this, Taizong bowed his body in thanks. The Ten Kings dispatched two officers, Magistrate Cui and Marshal Zhu, to escort Taizong back to life.

差 is chāi, to send someone on an errand. 朱太尉, Marshal Zhū, is an underworld officer, and worth remembering: he is the one who will eventually get the emperor home, by a method the emperor will not enjoy. 還魂, huán hún, is to put the soul back in the body.

As Taizong left the Hall of Judgment, he raised his hands once more and asked the Ten Kings, 'And how fare the old and young of my palace?'

On his way out the door he asks after the family, the way anyone does. 老少, lǎo shào, is "old and young" — 少 here is shào, young, not shǎo, few. 安否, "well or not," is the standard formula for asking after someone.

The Ten Kings said, 'All are well — only we fear that the imperial sister's span may not be long.'

A throwaway answer that turns out to be a plot device. 御妹 is the emperor's younger sister. 壽似不永 is "her span looks like it will not run long"; 似 is sì. Keep her in mind — the chapter is going to need a spare body, and this is where it orders one.

Taizong bowed again in thanks and said, 'When I return to the world of light I shall have nothing with which to repay you, save only to send some melons and fruit.'

The emperor, with nothing on him, offers the only thing he can think of. 酬謝 is to repay with thanks; 答 here is "to give in return." He means it as a polite nothing, the equivalent of saying he will send flowers. Two men will die to make good on it.

The Ten Kings said gladly, 'Here we have winter-melons and watermelons in plenty — we lack only pumpkins.'

The dread judges of the dead turn out to have a produce problem. The joke works on the compass: 東瓜 — a variant writing of 冬瓜 — is the winter melon, "eastern melon"; 西瓜, "western melon," is watermelon; 南瓜, "southern melon," is the pumpkin. Having east and west in stock, they are naturally short of south. 只少 is "lack only," with 少 as shǎo.

'When I return,' said Taizong, 'I shall send them at once, at once.' And with that they bowed to one another and parted.

相揖, xiāng yī, is the mutual bow with hands clasped. The doubled 「即送來」 — I'll send them, I'll send them — is the eagerness of a man halfway out of a room, and the promise is kept, at a cost he has not begun to imagine.