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著八根蜡烛。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，倒遇著这个泼怪。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 his cloud the dragon looks down on the brightly lit hall of the demon’s revel.
It proved that upon the eight "hall-fillers" eight candles were burning.
滿堂紅 ("hall-filling red") is a tall, branching lamp-stand or candelabrum; in 點著 the durative 著 is zhe. 那 is deictic 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 deictic nà, and the vernacular final 哩 is li. 逼法 conveys his overbearing, unrestrained manner.
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.
走了馬腳 ("let the horse’s leg show") is the very idiom the princess had used in her warning, now turned against the demon; 識破風汛 is "to see through the secret." 屣匾秤鉈了 is an obscure colloquial cluster suggesting a steelyard gone crooked — that the demon’s whole balance is undone. In 秤鉈 (a variant of 秤砣, "steelyard weight") the graph 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, improve oneself") takes 長 as zhǎng; 倒遇著 ("instead ran into") takes 倒 as dào and the durative 著 as zhe. 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, gain the advantage") takes 得 as dé. The dragon frames his gambit coolly, rescue deferred behind the stratagem.
The dragon’s reconnaissance turns the chapter’s idioms back upon the demon. Where the princess had warned her disguised husband not to 走馬腳 — let the horse’s hoof show — the dragon now gloats that the demon, drunk and reverted, has done exactly that. The creature who mastered disguise is undone by his own appetite.
The dragon’s cool, tactical calm — sport first, seizure next, rescue after — marks him as a genuine combatant, not merely a frightened servant. He is, after all, a dragon; and the plan he forms is the first counter-stroke the pilgrims have managed since the master’s capture.