原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
蟭蟟蟲兒
Out As A Gnat
好大聖，收了毫毛，將身一小，就變做個蟭蟟蟲兒，十分輕巧，細如鬚髮，長似眉毛，自孔中鑽出且還不走，徑飛在老魔頭上釘著。那老魔正飲酒，猛然放下杯兒道：「三弟，孫行者這回化了麼？」好大圣，收了毫毛，将身一小，就变做个蟭蟟虫儿，十分轻巧，细如须发，长似眉毛，自孔中钻出且还不走，径飞在老魔头上钉着。那老魔正饮酒，猛然放下杯儿道：「三弟，孙行者这回化了么？」
逐句解 Line by line
好大聖，收了毫毛，將身一小，就變做個蟭蟟蟲兒，十分輕巧，細如鬚髮，長似眉毛，自孔中鑽出且還不走，徑飛在老魔頭上釘著。
好大圣，收了毫毛，将身一小，就变做个蟭蟟虫儿，十分轻巧，细如须发，长似眉毛，自孔中钻出且还不走，径飞在老魔头上钉着。
Good Great Sage — he took back his hairs, made himself small, and turned into a gnat, exceedingly light and deft, fine as a beard-hair and long as an eyebrow. He bored out through the hole and still did not run, but flew straight up and fixed himself on the old fiend's head.
長似眉毛 takes 長 at cháng, long — the measuring band, against the zhǎng of growing that ran through the whole bottle sequence. 釘著 takes the light zhe: nailed on and staying nailed. The gnat is named 蟭蟟, and 蟲兒 keeps 兒 at full weight as ér.
那老魔正飲酒，猛然放下杯兒道：「三弟，孫行者這回化了麼？」
那老魔正饮酒，猛然放下杯儿道：「三弟，孙行者这回化了么？」
The old fiend was in the middle of his wine when he abruptly set down his cup and said, "Third brother — has Sun Wukong dissolved by now?"
猛然放下杯兒 — the cup going down suddenly — is the physical tell of a thought arriving. He has been drinking for two hours and has only now wondered.
總評 Commentary
The detail that makes this passage is 且還不走: he got out and did not leave. Everything about Wukong's situation says run — he is burnt, he has spent his emergency gift, and there are a hundred armed demons in the hall. He goes and sits on the head of the one who put him in there, because he wants to watch.
It is the same appetite that lost him the disguise, and the book is perfectly aware of the pattern. The difference is that this time it pays: what he overhears from up there gives him the scene, and gives the chapter its best exchange.