不是說處 This Is No Place To Speak
行者道:「那君王敵戰之言,與排兵布陣之事,才與大王說了。只是那君王有思想娘娘之意,有一句合心的話兒,特來上稟。奈何左右人眾,不是說處。」行者道:「那君王敌战之言,与排兵布阵之事,才与大王说了。只是那君王有思想娘娘之意,有一句合心的话儿,特来上禀。奈何左右人众,不是说处。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said: "As to what the king said about giving battle, and the disposition of his troops, I have just now told it to the Great King.
He opens with the part that has already been transacted, which puts everything coming after it outside the demon's knowledge without ever saying so. 才 is just now.
"Only, that sovereign has something of a longing for your ladyship, and there is a word from his heart that I am come up on purpose to report.
合心的話兒 is a word that matches the heart, with the suffix at ér. 上稟 is to report upward — and that single character restores to her the rank his greeting had denied.
"But with so many people to left and right, this is no place to say it."
處 is chù, a place. The sentence asks for the room to be cleared without asking for anything: it states a difficulty and lets her solve it, which is the same technique that got the courier to empty his despatch bag on the road.
Three sentences, each one narrowing the audience. The first belongs to the demon and has already been delivered; the second belongs to her alone; the third says it cannot be said here. He has taken a room full of attendants and made them the obstacle rather than himself.
The manoeuvre is the courier's all over again. He does not ask for privacy — he mentions that there is something he cannot say, and leaves the other party to want it. It worked on a road with a man carrying despatches and it is about to work in a palace with a woman who has been years without news.
And what he is offering is the one thing nobody has given her. Not a rescue, not a plan, not proof — a word from her husband's heart. The bracelets are on his arm and he has not mentioned them.