Pilgrim supported the Tang Monk and Sha Monk propped up Eight Rules; the two of them moaning and crying out, bellies thrust forward, each one aching till his face was yellow and his brows drawn, they went into the thatched cottage and sat down.

腆著 has 著 as zhe, marking the action as ongoing — to push the belly out and keep it out. 疼得 takes 得 as the light de linking the verb to its result. The sentence spends thirty-seven characters on a walk of a few paces, and the slowness is the comedy.

Pilgrim kept calling, "Grandmother, you must boil some hot water for my master, and we will thank you for it."

是必 is emphatic — you absolutely must. Wukong is still working from Sha Monk's diagnosis of cold water, and hot water is the remedy that follows from it.

The old woman, far from boiling any water, went trotting off to the back all smiles, calling, "Come and look, all of you! Come and look!"

笑唏唏 is printed here with 唏, where the same chuckling word appeared at the ferry as 笑嘻嘻 with 嘻. Both spellings are kept as printed and both read xī. The pair is good evidence of how loosely the woodblock fixed words of this kind. Both 看 are kàn.

Out from within, with a splashing and a tramping, came two or three more women neither young nor old, and all of them stood gazing at the Tang Monk and tittering.

蹼𨁃蹼踏 imitates footfalls. Its second character, 𨁃, is rare enough that few fonts carry it; the 漢語大字典 gives tī in its reading field, and zdic, the standard online character database, agrees. 半老不老 is a set phrase for middle age — neither old nor not old. 哂笑 is a laugh with something held back.

Pilgrim flew into a rage, gave a shout, and bared his teeth.

齜 is zī, to bare the teeth; the character carries chái in other uses, but not in this one. 喝 is hè, a shout — not hē, to drink. That second reading turns up exactly once in this chapter, a long way further on, and it is Bajie who gets it.

It so frightened the whole household that they went stumbling and staggering away to the back.

諕 is always xià, to frighten, wherever it appears in this book, and never háo. 跌跌蹡蹡 imitates unsteady flight, with 蹡 printed for 蹌; it keeps its ordinary reading.

Pilgrim went forward, caught hold of the old woman and said, "Boil that water quickly and I will let you off."

快早 is an emphatic at once. Wukong's method — seize and threaten — does produce the information, though it never produces the water.

The old woman said, trembling, "Gracious sir! Boiling water will do no good, and it will not cure those two their belly-ache either. Let me go and I will tell you."

治不得 asks whether the thing can be done, so 得 is the light de. Notice that she has stopped arguing about hot water and started bargaining for her release with an explanation.

Pilgrim released her, and she said, "This place of ours is the Women's Country of Western Liang.

西梁女國 is this novel's version of the 女國 that Xuanzang's own travel record places out in the Western Regions. The name is dropped flatly, as a piece of local geography, and everything that has puzzled the pilgrims follows from it.

Every soul in this country of ours is a woman; there is not a man among us, and that is why we were so pleased at the sight of you.

男子 takes 子 as zǐ, the full noun, not the light suffix zi of 圈子 or 獃子. 盡 is jìn. The explanation is delivered without the least sense of anomaly. To her, this is simply how a country is.

That water your master drank was no good.

不好了 is a considerable understatement, and it is the whole of her preamble.

That river is called the Child-and-Mother River.

子母河 takes 子 as zǐ, child — a noun set beside 母, mother, not a suffix. The name is the explanation, and the story has held it back for more than fifteen hundred characters.

Outside the walls of our royal city there is moreover a Posthouse of Welcomed Yang, and outside its gate is a Fetus-Reflecting Spring.

迎陽 means welcoming the yang, the male principle — which is the one thing this country does not contain. Naming the state guesthouse after it is a joke at the reader's expense as much as anything. 照胎泉 is a spring that shows a pregnancy by reflection, like a pond used as a pregnancy test.

The people here dare not go and drink of that river's water until they have reached the age of twenty and above.

但得 takes 得 as dé, to attain — only on reaching that age. The detail turns the river from a curse into an institution. It is regulated, age-gated, and here entirely normal.

After drinking the water, one feels the belly ache and knows there is a conception.

覺 is jué, to become aware, not jiào, sleep. 有胎 states in two characters the fact the pilgrims have been circling for two passages.

Three days after, one goes to the water of the Fetus-Reflecting Spring at the Posthouse of Welcomed Yang, and looks.

The procedure is described as routine. 照去 — go and look — carries no more weight than an errand.

If on looking there prove to be a double reflection, then the child will be born.

照得 links the looking to what it turns up, so 得 is the light de. 降生 takes 降 as jiàng, to come down into life — not the xiáng of subduing a demon. 孩兒 takes 兒 as ér, the full word child, not the little suffix.

Your master has drunk the water of the Child-and-Mother River, and by that has conceived; in a day or two he will have to give birth. What is hot water going to cure?"

Two 子 in one sentence with different readings: zǐ in 子母河, where it means child, and the light zi in 孩子, where it is only a suffix. 治得 again asks whether the thing can be done. Her closing question — what is hot water going to cure? — answers the demand Wukong made of her nine segments back.