See him now, gripping his iron rod and tugging Old Gao along. "Bring me to the back court," he said, "where the monster lodges, that I may look at it."

揝 (zǎn), to grip in the fist. Both 著 of this segment are zhe, states maintained. 後宅子裡: the inner court where women live, here a prison.

Old Gao led him to the door of the back court. The Pilgrim said, "Go and fetch the key."

門首, the doorway. The Pilgrim, who has just been shown to be beyond ordinary means, asks for a key like anybody else.

Old Gao said, "Look at it first. If a key could serve, I should not have sent for you."

用得鑰匙: 得 is the potential dé. The old man's retort is his sharpest line in the chapter, and entirely just.

The Pilgrim laughed. "Old fellow, for all your years you cannot take a jest. I was only teasing you, and you took it in earnest."

不識耍, cannot take a joke. 話兒 takes the diminutive er; 當真 takes 當 as dàng, "to reckon as." 哄你一哄 — the verb doubled around its own object.

He went up and felt the lock: it was one filled solid with molten copper.

銅汁灌的鎖子: a lock whose keyway has been run full of molten copper. Squire Gao has not merely locked the door; he has made it unopenable, and said nothing of it until now.

That so vexed him that he drove his golden-hooped rod at it once, burst the door leaves open — and within was pitch darkness.

狠得 writes 恨得, "so exasperated that"; 得 is the resultative de. 黑洞洞 — the reduplication makes a substantive of the dark.

The Pilgrim said, "Old Gao, call your daughter once, and see whether she is inside."

The Pilgrim gives the father the office of calling, and stands back. It is the first considerate thing he has done since entering the village.

The old man hardened his heart and called, "Third sister!"

硬著膽, "stiffening his gall"; 著 is zhe. 三姐姐 — the third daughter, addressed by her rank among sisters, as if she were still a child of the house.

The girl knew her father's voice, and with hardly breath or strength enough answered him once: "Papa — I am here."

認得 takes 得 as the resultative de. 應了一聲: 應 is yìng, to answer, not yīng, "ought." 少氣無力 — short of breath and without strength. Half a year behind a copper-sealed lock is answered for in five graphs.

The Pilgrim flashed his golden eyes and looked carefully into the shadow. What manner of thing do you suppose he saw? Only this:

閃金睛, the fire-golden eyes flashing open. 怎生模樣: 模 is mú. The formula 但見那 hands the description over to verse.

Cloudy tresses heaped in disorder, uncombed; a face of jade unwashed, and grimed with dust.

A 詞 in five units. 雲鬢, cloud-tresses; 無掠, not smoothed with the hand. 塵淄 (zī) is a black grime — the jade face is not merely unwashed but stained.

The orchid heart within her is whole as ever; the tender bearing is ten parts fallen away.

蘭心 takes up her name, Kingfisher Orchid, and the sisters' names before hers. The couplet's force is in the antithesis: what is within is untouched; what shows is ruined. 一片 takes the mechanical sandhi yí.

The cherry lips have lost their blood and breath; the waist and limbs are bent, and huddled close.

櫻唇, cherry lips, the standard beauty. 屈屈偎偎 — bent and huddling, the reduplication doing what description cannot.

Sorrow gathers upon her, and the moth-brows are pale;

This unit and the next are joined in the original by ； and are kept as two verse units by house convention. 蹙蹙 (cù cù), knitted, drawn together; 蛾眉, the moth-antenna brows of the 詩經.

thin and shrinking she is, and the voice is low.

怯怯, timid, shrinking. The 詞 ends on 語聲低, three graphs, and the reader has already heard that low voice answer her father from the dark.