The Pilgrim said, "Master, do not fret. Those lads have both gone off to sleep; we need only wait until they are fast asleep, and then set out by night."

Wukong has been planning this since the lock went on. 那童兒都睡去了 uses 那 as nà, "those," and 都, dōu, "all." Then 睡著了, shuì zháo le, "fallen fast asleep": 著 here is zháo, the reading that marks an action arriving at its target, not the zhe that marks one merely under way. Gone to bed, and then actually asleep — two different things, and he is waiting for the second.

Wujing said, "Brother, the several gates are all locked, shut fast and tight—how are we to get out?"

Wujing raises the practical objection, as he generally does. 閉得甚緊, bì de shèn jǐn, "shut extremely tight," with the linking 得, de, and 甚 on its own as shèn, "very" — not part of 甚麼.

The Pilgrim laughed: "Never mind, never mind—old Sun has his own method."

莫管, mò guǎn, "never mind about it." 法兒, fǎ'r, "a method, a trick," with the diminutive suffix 兒, ér.

Bajie said, "Small fear you have no method! You could turn into some sort of gnat and fly out through the lattice-holes.

Bajie's objection is not that Wukong lacks a plan but that the plan will only fit one of them. 蟲蛭兒, chóng zhì'r, is a gnat or midge. 格子眼, gé zi yǎn, are the little openings in a lattice window. 飛將出去 takes 將, jiāng, as a directional syllable; 甚麼 takes 甚 as shén.

"But it is hard on the rest of us who cannot transform—we shall just have to bear the blame here, holding the pot."

頂缸受罪, dǐng gāng shòu zuì — literally "hold up the vat and take the punishment" — is carrying the can for someone else's doing. English happens to have reached for almost the same picture, which makes this one of the easier idioms in the chapter to feel.