Then from among the water-folk there slipped forward a mottled-robed Mandarin-Fish Dame, who bobbed and bowed to the monster and said with a laugh: 「Great King, if you would have the Tang Monk, where is the difficulty in it?

那水族中: 那 is nà, 中 is zhōng. 難處: 難 is nán, 處 is chù. 跬跬拜拜 is a doubled sound-word for small bobbing bows — a courtier's shuffle written as noise. And note what she is: 鱖 is the mandarin fish, a spiny freshwater hunter and one of the most prized eating fish in China.

Only I don't know — if he is taken, will you reward me with a little wine and meat?」

She names her price before she gives the plan, which tells you where she stands in this household — high enough to bargain, not high enough to be paid without asking.

The monster said: 「If you have a scheme, and we join our strength and take the Tang Monk, I will bow with you as brother and sister and we shall share the table.」

拜為兄妹: 為 is wéi, the verb "to become" — sworn kinship, not the wèi of "for the sake of." Bowing to make someone your brother or sister was a real ceremony, and it bound harder than a contract.

The Dame bowed her thanks and said: 「Long have I known that the Great King has the power to call up wind and summon rain, and force to stir the sea and overturn rivers. But I do not know — can you send down snow?」

降雪: 降 is jiàng, "to send down" — this chapter's dominant reading of the character, against the single xiáng, "to subdue," that turns up near the end in the name of Sha Monk's weapon.

The monster said: 「I can.」

會降 — short for 會降雪; 降 is jiàng.

She asked again: 「Since you can send down snow, can you also make cold and set ice?」

作冷結冰. The whole plan is in that one step from snow to ice, and she takes it as a follow-up question.

The monster said: 「Better still.」

更會: 更 is gèng, "all the more" — not gēng, the night-watch, which turns up three segments below.

The Dame clapped her hands and laughed: 「Then it is easy — the easiest thing in the world.」

The doubled 極易 is the counsellor's flourish before she discloses anything — the spoken equivalent of steepling the fingers.

The monster said: 「Come, set out this easy business of yours; let me hear it.」

將 is jiāng, gathering up 極易之功, this easy business of yours.

The Dame said: 「Tonight, at the weather of the third watch, let the Great King not hesitate but set to his arts at once: raise a blast of freezing wind, send down a fall of great snow, and freeze the River That Reaches to Heaven solid throughout.

三更: 更 is gēng, the night-watch — the third of five, so around midnight. Set it beside the gèng of "all the more" three segments above. 盡皆: 盡 is jìn, a reading fixed across this edition. Both 一陣 lift 一 to yí before the falling tone of 陣.

Have those of us who are good at transformation change into a few human shapes and stand about the road-head, packs on our backs and umbrellas in hand, shouldering loads and pushing carts, going up and down on the ice without a pause.

著 is zhuó here, standing at the head of the sentence: the word for setting someone to a task — have so-and-so do such-and-such. It works the same way later when Old Chen puts two boys to sweeping paths. 擔擔 is one character twice with two readings: the verb 擔 is dān, to shoulder, and the load it shoulders is dàn. 行走: 行 is xíng, not háng.

That Tang Monk's heart is set desperately hard on fetching the scriptures; when he sees people passing so, he will certainly tread the ice and cross.

那唐僧 is nà. 甚急: 甚 is shèn, "extremely" — not shén, "what," which the demon used at the temple gate. 人行: 行 is xíng, people walking. This is the sentence the trap is built on.

Let the Great King sit quiet in the river's heart, and when the sound of his footfall comes, burst the cold ice apart, so that he and those disciples of his go down into the water together — at one stroke he may be had.」

響處: 處 is chù. 可得: 得 is dé. 一齊 keeps yì before a rising tone, 一鼓 yì before a falling-rising one. 一鼓 is "at a single drum-beat," and it comes off the battlefield: one roll of the drum and the whole line goes forward.

The monster heard her out, and his heart brimming with joy he said: 「Excellent, excellent!」

甚妙: 甚 is shèn twice.

He went straight out of the water mansion, trod the long sky, raised wind and made snow, congealed the cold and set it hard to ice; of which no more.

長空: 長 is cháng, "long, vast." 興風: 興 is xīng, "to raise, to stir up," not xìng, "mood," which is the reading the chapter will use later in the garden. The phrase belongs to a proverb about raising wind and making waves — what troublemakers do.