差遣伴當 Dispatching the Attendants
將精細鬼、伶俐蟲一聲喝起。二人道：「造化，造化，打也不曾打，罵也不曾罵，卻就饒了。」二魔道：「叫那常隨的伴當巴山虎、倚海龍來。」二人跪下，二魔吩咐道：「你卻要小心。」俱應道：「小心。」「卻要仔細。」俱應道：「仔細。」又問道：「你認得老奶奶家麼？」又俱應道：「認得。」「你既認得，你快早走動，到老奶奶處，多多拜上，說請吃唐僧肉哩；就著帶幌金繩來，要拿孫行者。」将精细鬼、伶俐虫一声喝起。二人道：「造化，造化，打也不曾打，骂也不曾骂，却就饶了。」二魔道：「叫那常随的伴当巴山虎、倚海龙来。」二人跪下，二魔吩咐道：「你却要小心。」俱应道：「小心。」「却要仔细。」俱应道：「仔细。」又问道：「你认得老奶奶家么？」又俱应道：「认得。」「你既认得，你快早走动，到老奶奶处，多多拜上，说请吃唐僧肉哩；就着带幌金绳来，要拿孙行者。」
逐句解 Line by line
With a shout he sent Fine-and-Keen and Clever-Bug packing. The two said: “What luck, what luck! Not beaten though we deserved beating, not cursed though we deserved cursing — and let off after all.” The second fiend said: “Call the regular attendants, Mountain-Straddling Tiger and Sea-Reclining Dragon.”
一聲喝起 yì shēng hè qǐ — sent packing with one shout — takes 喝 as hè, the bark of command rather than the drinking word. 那常隨的伴當 nà cháng suí de bàn dāng, those regular attendants, points with 那; 伴當 bàn dāng is a retainer, the household staff a great man travels with.
The two knelt down, and the second fiend charged them: “You must take care.” Both answered: “We'll take care.” “And be thorough.” Both answered: “We'll be thorough.” He asked again: “Do you know the way to Old Grandma's home?” Again both answered: “We know it.”
Three injunctions, three dutiful echoes, and the passage runs like a drill. 俱應道 jù yìng dào, both answered — 應 read yìng, three times over. 仔細 zǐ xì is careful, thorough, with 仔 as zǐ. 認得 rèn de is the everyday de of knowing your way about: not knowledge but familiarity.
“Since you know it, be off at once. Go to Old Grandma's, make many bows, say she is invited to eat the Tang Monk's flesh, and have her bring the gold-glinting cord — we want it to catch Sun the Pilgrim.”
老奶奶處 lǎo nǎi nai chù, Old Grandma's place — 處 read chù. The phrase to notice is 就著帶 jiù zhe dài, and while you are about it bring: 就著 is the colloquial "taking the occasion to," with 著 as the neutral zhe. Hold on to it — when Wukong recites this same order back at the couriers a few passages on, he flattens it to a plain 就帶, and the small slippage is the kind of thing an impostor gets away with.
The dismissal of the two failed imps is comic in its mercy. Spared both beating and curse, they read the reprieve as extraordinary luck — 打也不曾打，罵也不曾罵, not even beaten, not even cursed. Their relief throws the second fiend's economy into relief: he wastes neither punishment on the useless nor time on his design, and calls for competent hands.
The briefing that follows is a small ritual of command and assent — take care, be thorough, know the way — each order answered in obedient echo. It is also the hinge of everything to come: an invitation, a pretext of feasting, and above all the request that the matriarch bring the gold-glinting cord. Every word of it is spoken over a listening fly who now has the messengers, the destination and the weapon.