童子生疑 The Boys Take Alarm
那獃子只管絮絮叨叨的唧噥。不期那兩個道童復進房來取茶去獻，只聽得八戒還嚷甚麼「人參果吃得不快活，再得一個兒吃吃才好。」清風聽見，心疑道：「明月，你聽那長嘴和尚講：『人參果還要個吃吃。』師父別時叮嚀，教防他手下人囉唣，莫敢是他偷了我們寶貝麼？」明月回頭道：「哥耶，不好了，不好了，金擊子如何落在地下？我們去園裡看看來。」那呆子只管絮絮叨叨的唧哝。不期那两个道童复进房来取茶去献，只听得八戒还嚷甚么「人参果吃得不快活，再得一个儿吃吃才好。」清风听见，心疑道：「明月，你听那长嘴和尚讲：『人参果还要个吃吃。』师父别时叮咛，教防他手下人啰唣，莫敢是他偷了我们宝贝么？」明月回头道：「哥耶，不好了，不好了，金击子如何落在地下？我们去园里看看来。」
逐句解 Line by line
The blockhead went on muttering and grumbling without cease.
絮絮叨叨, xù xù dāo dāo, muttering on and on; 唧噥, jī nong, to grumble under the breath, with the second syllable neutral. He has been told the subject is closed and is refusing to close it.
Just then the two boys came back into the room to fetch tea to serve — and heard Bajie still bawling something about "the ginseng-fruit not eaten to my content; I'd need another to be satisfied."
And the wall does its work in the other direction. The boys come back for the tea things and hear him still complaining — quoting, in his own words, exactly what he should not have said aloud. 聽得 takes the light de; 吃得不快活 the same; 再得一個 takes 得 as dé, "to get." Three 得 in one line, two light and one full.
Pure-Wind heard it and grew suspicious: "Bright-Moon, listen to that long-snouted monk — 'the ginseng-fruit, he wants another'!
長嘴和尚, the long-snouted monk — 長 as cháng, "long," not the zhǎng of "Elder." Pure-Wind repeats the phrase back with the incredulity of someone who cannot quite believe what he has just heard.
Master charged us at parting to guard against his underlings making a rumpus — could it be they've stolen our treasure?"
And there it is: the master's warning, recalled word for word at the moment it comes true. 莫敢是, mò gǎn shì, "could it possibly be that —". 教防 takes the causative 教, jiào.
Bright-Moon turned and said, "Brother — this is bad, this is bad! How comes the golden striker to be lying on the ground?
Bright-Moon spots the physical evidence, and it is the one thing Pilgrim thought he had tidied away. The striker should be hanging on the lattice; it is lying on the floor. 哥耶, gē yé, "Brother!" — a call with an exclamatory flourish, the note of someone whose stomach has just dropped.
Let us go and look in the garden."
看看來, let us go and have a look. Six syllables, and the chapter turns for the last time.
Everything unravels through Bājiè's mouth. Told the subject was closed, he goes on grumbling — and the wall that let him overhear the boys now lets the boys overhear him. They come back for the tea things and catch him complaining, aloud and in detail, that one ginseng-fruit was not enough.
Pure-Wind's mind goes straight to the master's parting warning: guard against his underlings making a rumpus. It is the exact word Zhènyuán used, recalled at the moment it comes true. Then Bright-Moon spots the physical proof — the golden striker, which lives on the lattice in their room, lying on the floor where Pilgrim tossed it. Every safeguard the boys were given has now failed, and not one of them failed through any fault of theirs.