可是麼 Is That It?
行者道：「你不消說了，後半截我記得真，恐師父不信，我替你說了罷。」八戒道：「嘴臉，你又不曾去，你曉得那些兒，要替我說？」行者笑道：「『門上釘子有多少，只說老豬心忙記不真。』可是麼？」那獃子即慌忙跪倒。行者道：「朝著石頭唱喏，當做我三人，對他一問一答，可是麼？又說：『等我編得謊兒停當，哄那弼馬溫去。』可是麼？」那獃子連忙只是磕頭道：「師兄，我去巡山，你莫成跟我去聽的？」行者道：「你不消说了，后半截我记得真，恐师父不信，我替你说了罢。」八戒道：「嘴脸，你又不曾去，你晓得那些儿，要替我说？」行者笑道：「『门上钉子有多少，只说老猪心忙记不真。』可是么？」那呆子即慌忙跪倒。行者道：「朝着石头唱喏，当做我三人，对他一问一答，可是么？又说：『等我编得谎儿停当，哄那弼马温去。』可是么？」那呆子连忙只是磕头道：「师兄，我去巡山，你莫成跟我去听的？」
逐句解 Line by line
Said Pilgrim: "You needn't go on — the latter half I remember exactly; and lest the Master doubt it, let me say it for you."
The trap closes. 不消說, bù xiāo shuō, "no need to go on" — 消 in the sense of needing, as in modern 不消說, it goes without saying. 記得 takes 得 as de. He offers to finish the report on the witness's behalf.
Said Eight Rules: "The cheek of it! You never even went — what do you know of any of it, that you'd speak for me?"
嘴臉, zuǐ liǎn, literally "mouth and face" — here thrown as an exclamation, roughly "the nerve of you." 曉得 takes 得 as de; 那些兒 takes 那 as nà and the 兒 as the light er. His objection is unanswerable and he is about to be answered.
Pilgrim laughed: "'And how many nails are in the gate? — just say Old Hog was too flustered to count them right.' Is that it?"
And here it comes, in quotation marks. 釘子, dīng zi, "nails"; 記不真, "couldn't recall exactly." Pilgrim recites the gate-nail alibi — the one piece of the story that existed nowhere but inside Eight Rules's own head — and asks, mildly, whether that is about right.
At once the blockhead knelt down in a fluster.
跪倒, guì dǎo, "down on the knees," 倒 read dǎo. 那 is nà. No argument left.
Said Pilgrim: "You bowed to the rocks, took them for us three, and put question and answer to them — is that it?
朝著石頭唱喏, cháo zhe shí tou chàng rě, "bowing to the rocks and hailing them" — 當 read dàng, 著 read zhe. Pilgrim keeps going: the rocks, the casting, the mock question-and-answer.
And you said: 'When I've got my lie up in good order, I'll go fool that Bimawen.' Is that it?"
And the last line, the one he said to nobody at all. 編得謊兒停當, biān de huǎng er tíng dàng, "once I've got the lie up properly" — 得 the light de, the 兒 the light er, 當 read dàng. 那 is nà. Quoted back at him by the Bimawen he intended to fool.
The blockhead hastily did nothing but kowtow: "Elder Brother — I went to patrol the mountain; you couldn't have followed to eavesdrop on me?"
磕頭, kē tóu, "to knock the head on the ground" — the characters English borrowed as kowtow. 莫成, "surely you didn't…" And at last, four passages late, he arrives at the correct theory. 那 is nà.
Pilgrim closes it. He offers to supply the second half of the report himself; Eight Rules objects, quite reasonably, that Pilgrim never went and cannot know anything — and gets, by way of answer, the gate-nail alibi quoted back at him verbatim. That detail is devastating precisely because it was never spoken to anyone. It existed only in a rehearsal in front of three rocks, so hearing it in Pilgrim's mouth is proof of something the pig has no way to explain.
The recitation continues as he crumples: the bowing to the stones, the casting of them as master and brothers, the mock question-and-answer, and finally the muttered plan to fool that Bimawen. Nothing is inferred; everything is quoted. And his last, plaintive question — you couldn't have followed and listened to me? — is the moment he finally arrives at the truth, and names the mechanism the whole joke has run on. It never occurred to him that his senior brother could be the gnat in his ear.