攜著手 Out To The Back Garden
他兩個摟著肩,攜著手,出了佛殿,徑至後邊園裡。那怪把行者使個絆子腿,跌倒在地。口裡「心肝哥哥」的亂叫,將手就去掐他的臊根。他两个搂着肩,携着手,出了佛殿,径至后边园里。那怪把行者使个绊子腿,跌倒在地。口里「心肝哥哥」的乱叫,将手就去掐他的臊根。
逐句解 Line by line
The two of them went with arms about each other's shoulders and hands linked, out of the Buddha hall and straight to the garden at the back.
Two 著, both the sustained zhe: the shoulders held, the hands held, across the whole walk. The garden at the back is where the caps and shoes of the six were found.
There the monster hooked her leg round his and tripped him, and he fell to the ground.
那 is nà, pointing at the creature already named, and 倒 is dǎo, to fall — the base reading, not the dào of on the contrary. 絆子腿 is a wrestling term for hooking an opponent's leg away.
Crying out over and over in her throat, "Sweetheart, my darling," she put her hand down and seized him below.
將 is the disposal marker, taking the hand forward to the verb. 心肝哥哥, liver-and-heart elder brother, is an endearment of the coarser sort. The last two characters are blunt vernacular for the male genitals, and the novel does not soften them.
The ambush, and the point of it is that the seduction was never a seduction. The moment they are out of sight she trips him and goes for him, which is presumably how the six young monks ended.
The wrestling word is the tell. This is not an embrace that turns violent; it is a takedown, executed by someone who has done it before.
The novel is entirely unembarrassed about the physical detail, and it is worth remembering why it can afford to be. The thing on the ground looks like a boy of twelve and is in fact several centuries old and made of stone, iron and stolen elixir. She has attacked the one creature in the building who cannot be hurt.