倚玉偎香 Leaning On Jade Nestling Fragrance
暗想道：「我徒弟們不知在那裡尋我哩！」說一聲，止不住眼中墮淚。那女子陪著笑，挨至身邊，翠袖中取出一個蜜合綾汗巾來，與他揩淚道：「佳客勿得煩惱。我與你倚玉偎香，耍子去來。」暗想道：「我徒弟们不知在那里寻我哩！」说一声，止不住眼中堕泪。那女子陪着笑，挨至身边，翠袖中取出一个蜜合绫汗巾来，与他揩泪道：「佳客勿得烦恼。我与你倚玉偎香，耍子去来。」
逐句解 Line by line
He thought to himself, "There is no knowing where my disciples are looking for me!"
那 is the questioning nǎ here, licensed by the 不知 in front of it — he does not know where. The sealed chapters carry the same value at 徒在那裡？. The automatic reading gives the pointing value at every site. 哩 is fixed at li across the corpus.
He said it aloud, and could not keep the tears from falling.
不 shifts to bú against the falling tone of 住. It is the first time in the chapter the narrator gives him tears.
The woman kept smiling at his side, pressed close against him, drew a honey-coloured damask handkerchief from her kingfisher sleeve, and wiped his tears with it, saying, "Let the honoured guest not distress himself.
挨 keeps its one value, to press close, as it did in the doubled form two passages back. 勿得 takes dé, heading a clause of its own. The handkerchief is the only physical tenderness anyone shows him in the chapter, and it is applied to tears his captors caused.
"You and I will lean on jade and nestle against fragrance — let us go and play."
倚玉偎香 — leaning on jade, nestling against fragrance — is a set phrase for exactly what it describes. 子 takes the everyday zi in 耍子, against the bookish zǐ of 女子 in the segment before.
The chapter gives Tripitaka one private thought and it is not about his vow, his mission, or his fear. It is that he does not know where his disciples are looking for him. Then he says it out loud without meaning to, and cries.
What answers the tears is a handkerchief. She keeps smiling, presses against him, draws honey-coloured damask from a kingfisher sleeve and wipes his face — the one act of physical gentleness in the whole chapter, performed by his captor, on tears she is responsible for. The novel describes the fabric and the colour and says nothing about the gesture.
Her line after it is the plainest thing said all night: let us go and play. Six blocks of allusion, rhyme-matching and doctrine, and the proposition when it finally comes is put in the vocabulary a child would use.