剪草除根 Cut the Grass and Root It Out
他走來看見高老，一把扯住，抱頭大哭。行者道：「且莫哭，且莫哭。我問你，妖怪往那裡去了？」女子道：「不知往那裡去。這些時，天明就去，入夜方來。雲雲霧霧，往回不知何所。因是曉得父親要祛退他，他也常常防備，故此昏來朝去。」行者道：「不消說了。老兒，你帶令愛往前邊宅裡，慢慢的敘闊，讓老孫在此等他。他若不來，你卻莫怪；他若來了，定與你剪草除根。」那老高歡歡喜喜的把女兒帶將前去。他走来看见高老，一把扯住，抱头大哭。行者道：「且莫哭，且莫哭。我问你，妖怪往那里去了？」女子道：「不知往那里去。这些时，天明就去，入夜方来。云云雾雾，往回不知何所。因是晓得父亲要祛退他，他也常常防备，故此昏来朝去。」行者道：「不消说了。老儿，你带令爱往前边宅里，慢慢的叙阔，让老孙在此等他。他若不来，你却莫怪；他若来了，定与你剪草除根。」那老高欢欢喜喜的把女儿带将前去。
逐句解 Line by line
She came out, saw Old Gao, caught hold of him, and clung to his neck weeping.
抱頭大哭, to clasp the head and weep aloud, is the fixed phrase for a reunion after long parting. Note that the girl is given no words at all until the Pilgrim has told her to stop crying.
The Pilgrim said, "Do not weep, do not weep. Tell me — where has the monster gone?"
那 here is the question word, nǎ. The Pilgrim's comfort runs to one line — 且莫哭，且莫哭 — and then he wants information.
The girl said, "I do not know where he goes. These days he leaves at daybreak and comes back at nightfall.
Her answer is the whole of what she knows, and it is a farm-hand's timetable: out at first light, back after dark. She has never seen him hunt or fly.
He goes in cloud and mist, and I know nothing of where he goes or whence he returns. Because he knows my father would be rid of him,
往回不知何所: she does not know the direction he comes from or goes to. 曉得 takes 得 as the unstressed de. 祛退 is to drive a spirit off by ritual.
he is always on his guard; and so he comes at dusk and goes at dawn."
昏來朝去: 朝 is zhāo, dawn, not cháo, court. Now set it against her father's 昏去明來 in the earlier interview. The two accounts are exact mirror images of each other, and they cannot both be true.
The Pilgrim said, "Enough said. Old man, take your daughter to the front of the house and talk with her at leisure, and let old Sun wait for him here.
不消說了 is no need to say more. 令愛, your honoured love, is the polite way of saying your daughter. 敘闊 is to talk over a long separation — literally, to lay out the distance between you.
If he does not come, do not blame me; but if he comes, I shall cut the grass and root it out for you."
剪草除根, cut the grass and dig out the root, takes Squire Gao's 除了根 and lifts it into a proverb — one still in daily use, and still meaning finish the job so thoroughly it cannot come back. Whether the Pilgrim intends to kill the monster or merely to promise it is left, deliberately, unresolved.
So Old Gao, in great good humour, took his daughter away with him to the front.
帶將前去: 將 here is a verbal complement, jiāng, doing grammatical rather than lexical work. 歡歡喜喜 doubles both its characters into the old man's delight — set, by the narrator, right beside a daughter who has just been described as barely able to speak.
Two accounts of the monster's hours now stand side by side. Squire Gao said 昏去明來, out at dusk and home at dawn, and offered it as evidence of diligence. His daughter says 昏來朝去, home at dusk and out at dawn, and explains it as watchfulness against exorcists. The novel does not reconcile them. The father is describing a labourer; the daughter is describing a husband who keeps regular hours and is frightened.
Of Kingfisher Orchid we learn nothing else. She weeps, she answers a question, and she is led away by a father in 歡歡喜喜 spirits. The 世德堂本 gives her fifty-six characters of speech in the whole chapter, and every one of them is testimony against her husband. What she wants is never asked.