琵琶骨 Bored Through The Shoulder Bone
兩三個小和尚喜喜歡歡，提著燈籠，引長老下了塔。一個先跑報眾僧道：「好了，好了，我們得見青天了，偷寶貝的妖怪已是爺爺們捉將來矣。」行者教：「拿鐵索來，穿了琵琶骨，鎖在這裡。汝等看守，我們睡覺去，明日再做理會。」那些和尚都緊緊的守著，讓三藏們安寢。两三个小和尚喜喜欢欢，提着灯笼，引长老下了塔。一个先跑报众僧道：「好了，好了，我们得见青天了，偷宝贝的妖怪已是爷爷们捉将来矣。」行者教：「拿铁索来，穿了琵琶骨，锁在这里。汝等看守，我们睡觉去，明日再做理会。」那些和尚都紧紧的守着，让三藏们安寝。
逐句解 Line by line
Two or three of the young monks, in high delight, carried the lanterns and led the elder down out of the pagoda.
喜喜歡歡 is a doubled frame and keeps full tones at all four syllables. These are the boys who were chained to the pillars a few hours ago. They now have the lanterns and are leading the way.
One ran on ahead to tell the others: "It is well, it is well! We shall see the blue sky again — Their Reverences have caught the fiends who stole the treasure and brought them down!"
見青天, to see the blue sky, is the standard figure for a wrong being put right — coming out into daylight after being kept in the dark. It is still the phrase Chinese reaches for when a case is finally cleared. 爺爺們 lets the second syllable go light, as the doubled address term always does, with the plural ending after it.
Pilgrim gave the order: "Fetch iron chains, run them through the shoulder-bones, and lock them up here.
穿琵琶骨 is running a chain through the shoulder-blade, and the novel has used it before on Pilgrim himself. At his capture in the sixth chapter a hooked blade was put through his 琵琶骨, and the text there says outright 再不能變化 — he could no longer change shape. That is the entire point of the order. The same measure is used on a captured alligator-demon in the forty-third chapter, and will be used again in the chapter after this one, on the Dragon Wife.
"You keep watch on them. We are going to sleep, and will deal with it again tomorrow."
看守 takes kān, to guard, and 睡覺 takes jiào, to sleep. Two characters in one short sentence that each split two ways, and the split is not visible on the page.
Those monks all kept close watch, and let Tripitaka and his disciples take their rest.
緊緊 is another doubled frame with full tones at both syllables. The men in cangues sit up all night guarding the prisoners so that the guests can sleep, and the sentence reports it without a word of comment.
The order Pilgrim gives is a technical one and the novel expects you to know why. A chain bored through the shoulder-blade is what stops a shape-changer changing shape. It was done to him in the sixth chapter with a hooked blade, and the text there says plainly that he could not transform afterwards. He is doing to these two exactly what was once done to him.
Around that piece of cruelty the passage is almost entirely domestic. Boys with lanterns lead the way downstairs, one of them runs ahead shouting the news, and the monks still in cangues sit up all night on watch so that the visitors can sleep. Nobody remarks on any of it.