原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
顧命而回 She Fled To Save Herself
這番也只說戰他們不過，顧命而回，豈知又有這般樣事！这番也只说战他们不过，顾命而回，岂知又有这般样事！
逐句解 Line by line
這番也只說戰他們不過，顧命而回，豈知又有這般樣事！
这番也只说战他们不过，顾命而回，岂知又有这般样事！
This time she meant only that she could not beat the three of them and was running to save her skin. Who could have known that something quite different was waiting?
顧命 is to look to your own life, to think of nothing but getting out alive. Then 豈知 — who could have known — which is the narrator stepping forward to warn you that the escape is about to become an opportunity. It is one of the oldest tricks in Chinese storytelling and it still works: the teller admits he knows what happens next and refuses to say it yet.
One sentence, and it turns the whole chase around. The fiend runs for her life and runs straight into the thing she wanted most, sitting unguarded by the side of the road.
The novel could have let this arrive as a surprise. Instead it announces that a surprise is coming, which is a different and older pleasure — the reader is now watching the trap rather than falling into it.