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 is a vernacular adverb for coincidence — just so, as it happened to fall out. 徑往 is to head straight for. Both instances of 中 in this chapter, the 中堂 here and the 郎中 of the proverb, 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 is thick-hided, and so insolent. 畜生 takes 畜 as chù. 做甚: 甚 as shén, what for? And notice where this lands. Gao Cai has already told us he is 裡外受氣, taking it from both sides — cursed by his master indoors, then manhandled by a stranger in the street. Here is the master's half of it arriving again, right on cue. Abuse in this household travels downhill.
Gao Cai set down his pack and umbrella. "Let it be reported to the master of the house:
上告…得知 is the fixed shape of a report passed upward, and 得知 takes 得 as dé, to get to know. 主人公 here is simply the head of the household; the modern sense, the protagonist of a story, is not in play.
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, this little person, is the self-deprecating first person a servant uses. And the two monks are described exactly as the reader first met them, one on the horse and one with the luggage. That description is the whole 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 the unstressed de, pestered past bearing. 再三不曾與他說及 — again and again I refused to tell him — 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 dé of ability, could not get free. As for 一一, one by one: the tone rule that applies to 一 elsewhere gives yì yì here, though the reading usually taught is yī yī. The site follows its rule, and the discrepancy is on the record.
At which he was delighted, and would take the monster for us."
哩 is the vernacular flourish, read li — settled for this site in chapter sixteen. Gao Cai reports the Pilgrim's eagerness and supplies 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: the question word, nǎ. 差來 is again chāi. And note the squire's first question. Not what can they do, but where are they from — the question of a man who has already been sold three exorcists.
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 reads literally as it may be feared they have not — but the vernacular 怕不 carries affirmative force: they very likely do. 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？ — the question word again, nǎ. And the answer lands on the mounting-block: the holy monk of the Tang, imperial brother to the emperor, is sitting outside on the stone you use to get onto a horse.
The scene is built entirely out of relayed speech, and each relay loses something. Gao Cai passes on the grand imperial commission word for word, then flattens the Pilgrim's eagerness into 要與我們拿那妖怪哩, he'd take the monster for us. He also inserts, for his own credit, a resistance he never put up: 我再三不曾與他說及, again and again I refused to tell him. Three sentences earlier the reader watched him give way at the first grip.
Squire Gao's reply is the tired arithmetic of a man who has paid for failure three times already. He asks where they are from, weighs the answer — 既是遠來的和尚，怕不真有些手段, monks from far off may well have real skill — and only then thinks to ask 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.