原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
祛病延年 A Method For Long Life
一席筵宴已畢，壽星告辭。那國王又近前跪拜壽星，求祛病延年之法。一席筵宴已毕，寿星告辞。那国王又近前跪拜寿星，求祛病延年之法。
逐句解 Line by line
一席筵宴已畢，壽星告辭。
一席筵宴已毕，寿星告辞。
When the banquet was over the Longevity Star took his leave.
告辭, formally asking leave to go — the polite departure, which the king is about to interrupt.
那國王又近前跪拜壽星，求祛病延年之法。
那国王又近前跪拜寿星，求祛病延年之法。
The king came forward again, knelt and bowed to the Longevity Star, and begged him for a method of driving out sickness and lengthening his years.
祛病延年, expel illness and extend the years, is a standing four-character formula and it is exactly what the fraudulent prescription promised. The king has learnt that the Royal Father-in-Law was a deer, that the medicine was a lie and that his queen was a fox — and the first thing he does at the end of the banquet is ask a different immortal for the same thing.
This is the chapter's least comfortable moment and it is played completely straight. Nothing has changed. The appetite that let the demon in is still there, and it goes looking for a new supplier before the guest has left the room.
The novel does not condemn him for it, and there is a case for the king: he is old, he is ill, and there is a god of longevity at his table. Asking is the obvious thing to do. What the chapter has shown is where that obvious thing leads.