Pilgrim walked on, taking in the farmstead, and heard a creak: at the sound the brushwood gate opened and out came an old man, a goosefoot staff in his hand, a sheepskin cap on his head, a worn patched robe on his body, rush sandals on his feet. Propped on his staff, he tilted his body up toward the sky and said: "The north-west wind is getting up. It will be clear tomorrow."

只聽得 takes 得 as dé, managing to hear. 響處 has 處 as chù: at the place where it sounded. 拄著杖 uses zhe for a continuing state, propped on his staff. 朝天 is cháo, to face toward. The old man is drawn in four four-character clauses — staff, cap, robe, shoes — and he is reading the weather, not the stranger. He has not noticed Wukong at all.

Before he had finished, a little pug came running out from behind and barked and barked at Pilgrim.

說不了 takes 了 as liǎo, to finish, not the le that marks a completed action. 哈巴狗兒 is a pug or lapdog, with the little er ending. 望著 is again the zhe of a continuing state. The dog sees him before the man does, which is the correct order of events in any farmyard.

Only then did the old man turn his head and see Pilgrim holding up an alms bowl.

捧著 is zhe again, holding it up. 卻才 marks the delay, and what registers first is not the face but the begging bowl.

He made his greeting and said: "Venerable patron, this monk is one sent by the Great Tang in the Eastern Land to go west and bow to the Buddha for scriptures. Passing your precious district just now, my master's belly is empty with hunger, so I have come to your honoured house to beg a single meal."

欽差 is chāi, dispatched on commission — the word used of an imperial envoy, and not chà, amiss. 腹中 has zhōng, within. 寶方 and 尊府 are the polite forms for another man's district and house, roughly "your esteemed neighbourhood". Wukong gives the full credentials, as he does at every door he knocks on.

Hearing this, the old man nodded and tapped his staff. "Elder," he said, "never mind begging food — you have taken the wrong road."

長老 is zhǎng lǎo, elder, the form of address for a senior monk. 頓杖, bringing the staff down on the ground, punctuates the correction like a full stop.

Pilgrim said: "It is not wrong."

Five characters, flat contradiction. What follows is one of the novel's reliable comic shapes: a mortal measuring the road in walking days, and a monkey who does not walk.

The old man said: "The great road to the Western Heaven lies over there, due north. From here to there is a thousand lǐ. Why not go and find the main road and travel by it?"

Both instances of 那 are the pointing nà, the second referring back to the first. 此間 has 間 as jiān. 還 is hái: still, why not yet. 里, the lǐ, is the Chinese unit of road distance, roughly half a kilometre — so 千里之遙 is some five hundred kilometres, and it is the figure the entire joke turns on.

Pilgrim laughed and said: "Due north it is. My master is sitting on that very road at this moment, waiting for me to bring food."

哩 is the li that ends a sentence with a shrug. Wukong accepts the direction and denies the distance, without yet explaining why he can.

The old man said: "This monk talks nonsense. Your master is waiting on the main road for you to bring him food, and it is a thousand lǐ — even if he could walk it, that would take six or seven days there and six or seven days back. Would he not have starved by then?"

須得 is a two-character "must, requires", and 得 in it reads děi. The old man's arithmetic is impeccable — six or seven days each way at walking pace — and his premise is wrong. That is the joke, and he never gets to hear the answer.

Pilgrim laughed and said: "I will not deceive you, patron. I left my master only just now — not so long as it takes to drink a cup of hot tea — and here I am. Once I have the food I must still hurry back so he can have it for his midday meal."

Both instances of 還 are hái. 一盞熱茶之時 measures time by a cup of hot tea, which was the ordinary colloquial unit, like saying "in the time it takes to boil a kettle". 還要尚趕去 is what the 世德堂本 prints and it is kept as printed, though 尚 sits awkwardly beside 還; the sense is carried by 還要趕去 alone.