原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
燒得火好 Promoted For Good Firelighting
行者口乖，就趁過來道：「你不知道。大王見我燒得火好，就陞我來巡山。」行者口乖，就趁过来道：「你不知道。大王见我烧得火好，就升我来巡山。」
逐句解 Line by line
行者口乖，就趁過來道：「你不知道。
行者口乖，就趁过来道：「你不知道。
Pilgrim had a ready tongue and cut straight in. "You do not know about it.
口乖 is a clever mouth, quick at answering — a compliment paid with one eyebrow raised. 趁過來 is to seize the moment and come in on it, the verb for taking advantage of an opening.
大王見我燒得火好，就陞我來巡山。」
大王见我烧得火好，就升我来巡山。」
The king saw that I lit fires well, and promoted me to patrol the mountain."
燒得火好 has 得 as de, hanging the judgement on the verb — lit fires, and how well? 陞 is to be promoted, the official word for advancement in rank. Pilgrim has answered a personnel objection with a personnel explanation.
The answer is perfect and it is perfect because it accepts the rule. Yes, firelighters light fires and patrolmen patrol — and I was promoted, which is the one way an establishment allows a man to change posts.
It also flatters the person he is lying to. The rule you have just cited is real and I am the exception that proves it, granted by the king himself.
And it is the fourth institutional move in the chapter. Pilgrim is no longer pretending to be a demon; he is pretending to have been promoted, which is a much harder thing to check.