The Great Sage set his auspicious light going and caught up with Sha Monk.

縱著 has 著 as zhe, keeping the flight going. 祥光 is the coloured radiance this novel gives to well-disposed flight, as against the 雲霧, cloud and mist, of a demon's.

Having got the true water, in high good humour, they returned to their own place.

得了 takes 得 as dé; 本處 takes 處 as chù. Note 真水 — the poem's own term for it, carried straight into the prose. The water is now the alchemical reagent, not merely well-water.

They pressed the cloud down and came straight to the village cottage.

村舍 takes 舍 as shè. Eight characters, matching the eight that took them out.

There they saw Pig with his belly thrust out, propped against the door-frame and groaning.

腆著 has 著 as zhe; 肚 is dù; 哩 is li. The novel finds Bajie in precisely the posture it left him in.

Pilgrim crept up and said, "Idiot — when did you take to your confinement?"

占房 takes 占 as zhàn. The phrase means to take up occupancy of the lying-in chamber, so Wukong is asking a visibly pregnant man when he went into confinement. It is the third joke he has made at Bajie's expense on this subject.

The idiot said in a fluster, "Brother, no jokes. Have you brought any water?"

莫取笑 is a plea rather than a rebuke. He is in no position to argue.

Pilgrim was for teasing him further, but Sha Monk came up behind and said with a laugh, "The water's here! The water's here!"

還要 takes 還 as hái, still. Sha Monk ends the teasing by answering the question, which is his function in this party about as reliably as teasing is Wukong's.

Tripitaka raised himself against the pain and said, "Disciples! I have put you to great trouble."

累了你們 — I have put you to great trouble — is the first thanks Tripitaka has offered anybody since the mountain god's rice at the chapter's opening.

The old woman too was delighted; the several of the household came out and bowed, saying, "Bodhisattva! It is a hard thing, a hard thing."

幾口兒 takes 兒 as the light suffix er — the several mouths of a household. Both 難得 take 難 as nán and 得 as dé: hard to come by, and said twice over.

She hurriedly fetched a flowered porcelain cup, ladled out half a cupful and handed it to Tripitaka, saying, "Venerable master, drink it slowly — one mouthful is all that is needed, and the fetal humour will be dissolved."

半盞兒 takes 兒 as the light suffix er; 解了 takes 解 as jiě. 只消一口 sets the dose — one mouthful is all that is needed — and that is what turns the next two segments into a joke and a warning.

Eight Rules said, "I don't want a cup — let me drink the whole bucket and have done."

Here is the thread planted much earlier in the chapter. 喝 is hē, to drink — and this is its only appearance in that reading anywhere in the chapter. At the five earlier sites it has been hè, a shout. Bajie breaks the pattern, and he does it by asking for more. 罷 is the soft ba of a request.

The old woman said, "Venerable sir! You would frighten a person to death. If you drank this bucketful of water, I dare say your bowels and belly would be dissolved away altogether."

諕 is always xià, to frighten. 罷了 here takes 罷 as bà, exclamatory. The three 子 in this sentence are all the light suffix zi — 婆子, 腸子, 肚子 — as are the three 了, all of them the light le.

That frightened the idiot out of any nonsense, and he too drank only half a cup.

嚇得 links the fright to its result, so 得 is the light de; 胡為 takes 為 as wéi. The chapter's second great act of drinking thus matches the first — except that this time the doses are equal.