侮著頭跑 A Bruised Head Comes Back
這獃子手無兵器，遮架不得，被他撈了幾下，侮著頭跑上山來道：「哥啊，回去罷，妖怪兇。」行者道：「怎麼兇？」这呆子手无兵器，遮架不得，被他捞了几下，侮着头跑上山来道：「哥啊，回去罢，妖怪凶。」行者道：「怎么凶？」
逐句解 Line by line
The Idiot had no weapon in his hands and could not fend them off. After he had taken several blows he covered his head and ran back up the mountain, calling, "Brother! Let us go back — those fiends are fierce!"
He had no weapon in his hands is literally true and slightly dishonest: the rake is tucked in his belt, as the next scene confirms. In this phrase 得 is de, the light syllable of a can-or-cannot construction, so the sense is that fending them off was beyond him. 著 is zhe, the reading for an action held in place, so he runs the whole way with his hands still clamped over his skull. And the sentence-closing 罷 is ba, the light particle that turns a statement into a suggestion — not an order, a plea.
Pilgrim said, "Fierce how?"
Six characters, and all of the character work is in the brevity. He does not ask whether Bajie is hurt.
The retreat is staged as slapstick and read as characterisation. Bajie has a nine-toothed rake capable of splitting mountains and he uses his hands to protect his head instead. The narrator is careful to say he had no weapon in his hands, which is not the same thing as having no weapon.
Pilgrim's two-word reply sets the tone for the whole exchange that follows. He is not interested in the injury; he is interested in the report. Everything he says for the next several passages will be about what Bajie did wrong, and none of it will be sympathy.