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商議回山
Counsel and the Road Back
二妖嚇得呆呆掙掙道：「怎的好？怎的好？當時大王將寶貝付與我們，教拿孫行者。今行者既不曾拿得，連寶貝都不見了，我們怎敢去回話？這一頓直直的打死了也。怎的好！怎的好！」伶俐蟲道：「我們走了罷。」精細鬼道：「往那裡走麼？」伶俐蟲道：「不管那裡走罷。若回去說沒寶貝，斷然是送命了。」精細鬼道：「不要走，還回去。二大王平日看你甚好，我推一句兒在你身上。他若肯將就，留得性命；說不過，就打死，還在此間。莫弄得兩頭不著。去來，去來。」那怪商議了，轉步回山。二妖吓得呆呆挣挣道：「怎的好？怎的好？当时大王将宝贝付与我们，教拿孙行者。今行者既不曾拿得，连宝贝都不见了，我们怎敢去回话？这一顿直直的打死了也。怎的好！怎的好！」伶俐虫道：「我们走了罢。」精细鬼道：「往那里走么？」伶俐虫道：「不管那里走罢。若回去说没宝贝，断然是送命了。」精细鬼道：「不要走，还回去。二大王平日看你甚好，我推一句儿在你身上。他若肯将就，留得性命；说不过，就打死，还在此间。莫弄得两头不著。去来，去来。」那怪商议了，转步回山。
逐句解 Line by line
二妖嚇得呆呆掙掙道：「怎的好？怎的好？當時大王將寶貝付與我們，教拿孫行者。今行者既不曾拿得，連寶貝都不見了，我們怎敢去回話？這一頓直直的打死了也。怎的好！怎的好！」
二妖吓得呆呆挣挣道：「怎的好？怎的好？当时大王将宝贝付与我们，教拿孙行者。今行者既不曾拿得，连宝贝都不见了，我们怎敢去回话？这一顿直直的打死了也。怎的好！怎的好！」
The two fiends, scared stiff and staring, said: “What's to be done? What's to be done? That day the Great King entrusted the treasures to us and bade us capture Sun the Pilgrim. Now the Pilgrim is not taken, and the treasures on top of it are gone — how dare we go back and report? One straight beating and we're dead. What's to be done! What's to be done!”
呆呆掙掙 (dāi dāi zhēng zhēng), "dazed and rigid" — the reduplicated stupor of fright; 掙 read zhēng. 不曾拿得 (bù céng ná dé), "did not manage to take him" — 得 dé, attainment. 直直的打死 (zhí zhí de dǎ sǐ), "beaten outright to death.”
伶俐蟲道：「我們走了罷。」精細鬼道：「往那裡走麼？」伶俐蟲道：「不管那裡走罷。若回去說沒寶貝，斷然是送命了。」
伶俐虫道：「我们走了罢。」精细鬼道：「往那里走么？」伶俐虫道：「不管那里走罢。若回去说没宝贝，断然是送命了。」
Clever-Bug said: “Let's run for it.” Fine-and-Keen said: “Run where?” Clever-Bug said: “Anywhere, never mind where. If we go back and say the treasures are lost, it's certain death.”
走了罷 (zǒu le ba) and 走罷 (zǒu ba): 罷 as the hortative final ba. 往那裡走 (wǎng nǎ lǐ zǒu), "run where?" — interrogative nǎ; the following 不管那裡 is the indefinite "no matter where," likewise nǎ.
精細鬼道：「不要走，還回去。二大王平日看你甚好，我推一句兒在你身上。他若肯將就，留得性命；說不過，就打死，還在此間。莫弄得兩頭不著。去來，去來。」那怪商議了，轉步回山。
精细鬼道：「不要走，还回去。二大王平日看你甚好，我推一句儿在你身上。他若肯将就，留得性命；说不过，就打死，还在此间。莫弄得两头不著。去来，去来。」那怪商议了，转步回山。
Fine-and-Keen said: “Don't run; better we go back. The Second Great King has always looked on you kindly, and I'll put in a word on your behalf. If he's willing to be lenient, we keep our lives; if talk won't carry it and we're beaten to death, at least it's here at home. Don't leave us caught fast at neither end. Come along, come along.” So the fiends took counsel and turned their steps back to the mountain.
還回去 (hái huí qù), "go back after all" — 還 hái. 看你甚好 (kàn nǐ shèn hǎo): intensifier shèn, "regards you very well." 將就 (jiāng jiu), "to make allowances." 兩頭不著 (liǎng tóu bù zháo), "attached at neither end" — 著 resultative zháo; note 不 stays bù before the rising tone.
總評 Commentary
The imps' deliberation is a miniature of servile reasoning under a regime of terror. Flight and return are weighed not by right or safety but by the geometry of punishment: death abroad, death at home, or the thin chance of a master's indulgence. Clever-Bug's “anywhere, never mind where” is panic given a compass; Fine-and-Keen's rebuttal is the shrewder despair that knows a runaway servant has no destination.
Fine-and-Keen's clinching phrase, 兩頭不著 — caught fast at neither end — names the true horror of the middle position: to lose both the refuge of flight and the shelter of standing. His offer to “put in a word” trades on the Second King's favor toward his fellow, a small politics of patronage inside the demons' court, and it carries the day. The two turn back toward the mountain, and toward the audience they dread.