小龍窺宴 The Dragon Spies the Feast
小龍王在半空裡，只見銀安殿內燈燭輝煌。原來那八個滿堂紅上點著八根蠟燭。低下雲頭，仔細看處，那妖魔獨自個在上面逼法的飲酒吃人肉哩。小龍笑道：「這廝不濟，走了馬腳，識破風汛，屣匾秤鉈了。吃人可是個長進的？卻不知我師父下落何如，倒遇著這個潑怪。且等我去戲他一戲，若得手，拿住妖精，再救師父不遲。」小龙王在半空里，只见银安殿内灯烛辉煌。原来那八个满堂红上点着八根蜡烛。低下云头，仔细看处，那妖魔独自个在上面逼法的饮酒吃人肉哩。小龙笑道：「这厮不济，走了马脚，识破风汛，屣匾秤铊了。吃人可是个长进的？却不知我师父下落何如，倒遇着这个泼怪。且等我去戏他一戏，若得手，拿住妖精，再救师父不迟。」
逐句解 Line by line
The little Dragon-King, up in the middle air, saw only the Silver-Peace Hall ablaze with lamp and candle.
From the cloud he looks down on a hall blazing with light and cannot yet see what is happening in it.
It proved that upon the eight "hall-fillers" eight candles were burning.
滿堂紅 — "hall-filling red" — is a tall branching lamp-stand, a floor-standing candelabrum. Remember the object; it becomes a weapon in about four passages. In 點著 the 著 is zhe; 那 is pointing nà.
Lowering his cloud, he looked closely, and there was the demon, all alone above, brazenly drinking wine and eating human flesh.
仔細, carefully, takes 仔 as zǐ; 那 is pointing nà, and the vernacular sentence-final 哩 is li. 逼法 conveys the overbearing, unrestrained manner of it — a creature drinking and eating people with nobody left in the room to stop him.
The little dragon laughed: "This wretch is done for — he's let the horse's hoof show, his cover is seen through, his balance is thrown all askew.
The dragon laughs, because the demon has done the one thing his wife told him not to. 走了馬腳 is the horse-leg idiom from her warning, where it was 露出馬腳 — same image, different verb, same disaster. 識破風汛, "the secret seen through," is the chapter's leak idiom making its third and final appearance. 屣匾秤鉈了 is an obscure colloquial cluster suggesting a steelyard gone crooked — the whole balance thrown out. In 秤鉈, a writing of 秤砣, "steelyard weight," the character 鉈 is read tuó.
Is eating people any way to better oneself? But I do not yet know what has become of my master, and instead I have run into this vicious brute.
長進, to make progress, to better oneself, takes 長 as zhǎng — and asking whether eating people counts as self-improvement is exactly the dry note this dragon takes throughout. In 倒遇著, "ran into instead," 倒 is dào and the 著 is zháo, the reading for hitting a mark or landing on something, not the zhe of an action held in place. 潑怪 is a vile, rascally demon.
Let me first go and toy with him a while; if I gain the upper hand and seize the demon, it will not be too late then to save my master."
戲他一戲, "have a bit of sport with him"; 得手, to succeed, to get the advantage, takes 得 as dé. Sport first, capture second, rescue third. He is thinking like a soldier.
The reconnaissance turns the chapter's own idioms back on the demon. The princess had warned her disguised husband not to 露出馬腳, let the horse's leg show; the dragon now gloats that he has 走了馬腳, done exactly that. The creature who mastered disguise has been undone by his own appetite.
The dragon's cool tactical ordering — sport, then seizure, then rescue — marks him as a real combatant rather than a frightened servant. He is, after all, a dragon. And the plan he forms here is the first counter-stroke the pilgrims have managed since their master was taken.