又一個躘踵 Up And Down He Went Again
那老者見了，嚇得面容失色，腿腳酸麻，站不穩，撲的一跌；爬起來，又一個躘踵。大聖上前道：「老官兒，不要虛驚，我等面惡人善，莫怕，莫怕。那老者见了，吓得面容失色，腿脚酸麻，站不稳，扑的一跌；爬起来，又一个躘踵。大圣上前道：「老官儿，不要虚惊，我等面恶人善，莫怕，莫怕。
逐句解 Line by line
When the old man saw it the fright drained the colour from his face, his legs went numb and weak, he could not keep his footing and down he went with a thump;
嚇得 is the same construction the chapter used of Yama — so frightened that — with 得 unstressed. Then the body fails from the top down: face, then legs, then footing, then the ground. 撲的一跌 is the same 撲 that put Tripitaka off his horse in the same way earlier in this chapter.
and when he scrambled up, over he went once more.
躘踵 is a rare pair meaning to stagger and pitch forward, and the first character is one of a small set this project has to protect: left to itself the simplified conversion pushes it out of the ordinary range altogether. Eight characters, and they are pure slapstick — up, and straight back down.
The Great Sage stepped up and said, "Old officer, no need for alarm. We are ugly men but good ones. Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.
面惡人善 is a set four-character pairing — the face is bad, the person is good — and it is exactly what a person says when they have just frightened somebody witless. Repeating 莫怕 is the same doubling Pilgrim used on his own master after the fall from the horse. He has one technique for frightened people and he uses it on everyone.
This is the chapter's second fall, and it is deliberately the same shape as the first. Tripitaka went off his horse when he heard about the demons; the old man goes off his feet when he sees what has been asking about them.
The second tumble is what makes it comedy rather than horror. One fall is fright. Getting up and immediately falling over again is a man whose legs have stopped taking instructions, and the novel gives it eight characters and no comment.
Pilgrim's response is the same one he gave his master, word for word in places. He has no register for reassurance except this one, and it is worth noticing that it did not work particularly well the first time either.