臨行叮嚀 A Parting Caution
二仙童聞言，謹遵師命。那大仙臨行，又叮嚀囑咐道：「我那果子有數，只許與他兩個，不得多費。」清風道：「開園時，大眾共吃了兩個，還有二十八個在樹，不敢多費。」大仙道：「唐三藏雖是故人，須要防備他手下人囉唣，不可驚動他知。」二童領命訖，那大仙承眾徒弟飛昇，竟朝天界。二仙童闻言，谨遵师命。那大仙临行，又叮咛嘱咐道：「我那果子有数，只许与他两个，不得多费。」清风道：「开园时，大众共吃了两个，还有二十八个在树，不敢多费。」大仙道：「唐三藏虽是故人，须要防备他手下人啰唣，不可惊动他知。」二童领命讫，那大仙承众徒弟飞升，竟朝天界。
逐句解 Line by line
The two immortal boys, hearing this, reverently obeyed their master's command.
謹遵師命, jǐn zūn shī mìng — to obey a master's order with full deference. They mean it, too, which is what makes what follows unfair.
As the Great Immortal was about to set out, he charged them yet again: "My fruits are numbered — only two may be given him, no more to be spent."
He comes back to say it again, and this time with a number. 有數, yǒu shù, "are counted" — a fixed stock, not a supply. 不得多費 takes 得 as dé, "may."
Pure-Wind said, "When the orchard was opened, the assembly ate two between them; twenty-eight yet remain on the tree. We shall not spend them freely."
Pure-Wind produces the inventory, and it is exact: thirty originally, two eaten at the last orchard-opening, twenty-eight still on the tree. Ming readers of this novel are being handed an accounting problem, and the solution arrives at the end of the chapter.
The Great Immortal said, "Though Tang Tripiṭaka be an old friend, you must guard against his underlings making a rumpus — do not let them get wind of it."
The last instruction is the one that matters, and it is aimed precisely. Never mind the monk — watch his 手下人, the men under him. 囉唣, luō zào, is vernacular for making a rowdy nuisance of oneself. Zhènyuán has correctly identified the threat without having met it, and has told the boys exactly what to guard against; the story now spends four thousand characters demonstrating that being right is not the same as being safe.
The two boys received their orders; and the Great Immortal, borne aloft amid his throng of disciples, rose in flight and made straight for the celestial realm.
領命訖, lǐng mìng qì, the orders received; 飛昇, fēi shēng, to ascend in flight; 竟朝天界 takes 朝 as cháo, "toward." He leaves the abbey warned, instructed, and completely undefended.
The instructions get repeated, which in a story of this kind is never idle. He comes back to say the fruits are numbered and only two may go. Pure-Wind answers with the ledger — thirty to begin with, two eaten at the last orchard-opening, twenty-eight on the tree — and that ledger is a loaded gun. The chapter will end with somebody doing this sum again and getting a different answer.
Then the sharpest instruction of the three, and the one aimed at the real danger. Never mind Tripiṭaka; watch the men who work for him. 囉唣 is a wonderfully specific vernacular word for the kind of rowdy, grabby nuisance a servant makes in someone else's house, and Zhènyuán names it before he has laid eyes on Bājiè.
So the abbey is left warned about the right thing, by the right person, in good time — and it makes no difference whatever. He rises into the sky with forty-six disciples, and the two he leaves behind will keep every instruction they were given and lose everything anyway.