原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
扭扭捏捏 A Wriggle And A Shake
卻又把身子扭扭捏捏的抖了一抖，將那虱子、臭蟲、虼蚤，收了歸在身上，把假金鈴兒遞與那怪。却又把身子扭扭捏捏的抖了一抖，将那虱子、臭虫、虼蚤，收了归在身上，把假金铃儿递与那怪。
逐句解 Line by line
卻又把身子扭扭捏捏的抖了一抖，
却又把身子扭扭捏捏的抖了一抖，
Then he gave his body a wriggling, squirming sort of shake,
扭扭捏捏 is two doubled words together — twisting and pinching — and it describes the mincing, self-conscious movement of someone acting coy. He is still playing the maid. 一 takes yì before the rising tone of 抖.
將那虱子、臭蟲、虼蚤，收了歸在身上，
将那虱子、臭虫、虼蚤，收了归在身上，
gathered up the lice, the bedbugs and the fleas and took them back into himself,
The three creatures are listed again, in a different order from the first time. 收 is to gather in — they were his hair, and they go back where they came from.
把假金鈴兒遞與那怪。
把假金铃儿递与那怪。
and handed the false golden bells to the fiend.
Nine characters to close the exchange. 把 is the disposal marker; 兒 is ér, a full syllable in this text.
Recalling the vermin is a nice detail, and a practical one. They are made of his own hair and he wants them back — but it also means that when the fiend finally stops itching he will have no idea why. There will be no lice for anyone to find in the morning.
扭扭捏捏 is worth dwelling on. It is the word for someone being affectedly shy, all wriggle and simper, and it is how the Great Sage Equal to Heaven gets his insects back. He is not merely disguised as a maid; he is performing one, at some length, for an audience of monsters who are not looking.
The three creatures come back in a different order than they went out — lice, bedbugs, fleas, where the first list ran lice, fleas, bedbugs. Nothing turns on it. It is the kind of thing a storyteller working from memory does, and it survives into the printed text.