高才回報 Gao Cai Reports Within
那高才入了大門，徑往中堂上走，可可的撞見高太公。太公罵道：「你那個蠻皮畜生！怎麼不去尋人，又回來做甚？」高才放下包、傘道：「上告主人公得知：小人才行出街口，忽撞見兩個和尚：一個騎馬，一個挑擔。他扯住我不放，問我那裡去。我再三不曾與他說及，他纏得沒奈何，不得脫手，遂將主人公的事情，一一說與他知。他卻十分歡喜，要與我們拿那妖怪哩。」高老道：「是那裡來的？」高才道：「他說是東土駕下差來的御弟聖僧，前往西天拜佛求經的。」太公道：「既是遠來的和尚，怕不真有些手段。他如今在那裡？」高才道：「現在門外等候。」那高才入了大门，径往中堂上走，可可的撞见高太公。太公骂道：「你那个蛮皮畜生！怎么不去寻人，又回来做甚？」高才放下包、伞道：「上告主人公得知：小人才行出街口，忽撞见两个和尚：一个骑马，一个挑担。他扯住我不放，问我那里去。我再三不曾与他说及，他缠得没奈何，不得脱手，遂将主人公的事情，一一说与他知。他却十分欢喜，要与我们拿那妖怪哩。」高老道：「是那里来的？」高才道：「他说是东土驾下差来的御弟圣僧，前往西天拜佛求经的。」太公道：「既是远来的和尚，怕不真有些手段。他如今在那里？」高才道：「现在门外等候。」
逐句解 Line by line
Gao Cai went in at the great gate and made straight for the central hall, where as it happened he ran full into Squire Gao.
可可的 — "just so, as it fell out" — a vernacular adverb of coincidence. 徑往, straight toward. Both 中 of the chapter's 中堂 and 郎中 are zhōng.
The squire scolded him. "You thick-skinned brute! Why have you not gone to look for a man? What do you come back for?"
蠻皮: thick-hided, insolent. 畜生 takes 畜 as chù. 做甚 — 甚 as shén, "what for?" The squire abuses his servant in the same idiom the servant used of the Pilgrim.
Gao Cai set down his pack and umbrella. "Let it be reported to the master of the house:
上告…得知 is the formula of a report from below; 得知 takes 得 as dé. 主人公 here means the head of the household, not a protagonist.
your servant had only just walked out to the mouth of the street when he ran into two monks — one on horseback, one carrying a load.
小人, "your servant," the self-deprecating first person. The two monks are described exactly as they were introduced to the reader — one mounted, one with the luggage — and the description is the sum of what Gao Cai knows.
He caught hold of me and would not let go, and asked me where I was going. Again and again I refused to tell him, until he had pestered me past bearing;
纏得沒奈何: 得 is resultative de. 再三不曾與他說及 is a small lie; he told at the first squeeze.
and being unable to get my hand free, I told him the master's whole business from beginning to end.
不得脫手: 得 is the potential dé. 一一 is rendered by mechanical sandhi as yì yì; the received reading yī yī would require a rule change and is flagged.
At which he was delighted, and would take the monster for us."
哩 is the sentence-final particle of the vernacular, read lī by the ch16 ruling. Gao Cai reports the Pilgrim's eagerness with none of his own.
Old Gao said, "Where are they from?" Gao Cai said, "He says they are the holy monk, imperial brother of the Tang court, sent forth by the sovereign,
是那裡來的: interrogative nǎ. 差來, chāi. The squire's first question is not what they can do but where they are from — a man who has been sold three exorcists already.
bound west to worship the Buddha and seek the scriptures." The squire said, "If they are monks from far off, they may well have some real skill.
怕不真有些手段: "it may be feared they have not…" is the literal shape, but the vernacular 怕不 is affirmative in force — "they very likely do have." The old man is talking himself into hope.
Where are they now?" Gao Cai said, "Waiting outside the gate."
他如今在那裡？ — interrogative nǎ again. 現在門外等候 answers the courtesy of 馬臺: the holy monk of the Tang has been left sitting on a mounting-block.
The scene is built out of relayed speech, and each relay loses something. Gao Cai reports the Pilgrim's grandiloquent commission accurately, then flattens the Pilgrim's eagerness into 要與我們拿那妖怪哩. He also inserts, for his own credit, a resistance he never offered: 我再三不曾與他說及. Three sentences earlier the reader watched him surrender at the first grip.
Squire Gao's response is the small, weary calculation of a man who has already paid for failure three times. He asks their provenance, weighs it — 既是遠來的和尚，怕不真有些手段 — and only then asks where they are. That the sainted imperial brother of the Tang has been left waiting on a mounting-block outside the gate is a joke the novel makes without comment, and will make again.