絕妙的藥引 A Guide Better Than A Thousand
國丈道：「我才入朝來，見了一個絕妙的藥引，強似那一千一百一十一個小兒之心。那小兒之心，只延得陛下千年之壽；此引子，吃了我的仙藥，就可延萬萬年也。」国丈道：「我才入朝来，见了一个绝妙的药引，强似那一千一百一十一个小儿之心。那小儿之心，只延得陛下千年之寿；此引子，吃了我的仙药，就可延万万年也。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Royal Father-in-Law said, "When I came into court just now I saw a medicine-guide of the most surpassing kind, better by far than the hearts of those one thousand one hundred and eleven small boys.
The number comes back in full, character by character, and the reading of 一 shifts across the sentence. The first one, in 一個絕妙的藥引, is an ordinary "a" before a measure word and moves in the usual way; the three inside the number are counted digits and keep their full yī; the last, before 個 again, moves like the first. Five of the same character in one sentence and three different jobs.
"Those children's hearts would only have prolonged Your Majesty's years by a thousand;
得 is dé here, the attainment sense — it would get you a thousand years. He is discussing eleven hundred and eleven murders as an underperforming investment.
"but with this guide, taken with my immortal drug, one may prolong them by ten thousand times ten thousand."
萬萬年 — ten thousand times ten thousand years — is not a figure, it is the standard hyperbole for boundless duration, and it is also the acclamation shouted at an emperor. He is offering the king the literal version of his own throne-room greeting.
The bargaining is entirely quantitative and the novel lets it be. A thousand years for eleven hundred and eleven children, or ten thousand times ten thousand for one monk. Neither man mentions that the currency is people.
The last phrase is the sharpest thing in the passage. Ten thousand years is what a court shouts at a Chinese emperor as a greeting, the way English says long live the king. The Royal Father-in-Law is offering to make the formula true, and the price is the man who has just told this court that drugs for long life are empty words.