大王禍事了 Trouble Great King
小妖急跑去報與老妖道：「大王，禍事了。」老怪道：「有甚禍事？」小妖道：「山前來了一個和尚，且是生得乾淨。我說拿家來蒸他吃，若吃不了，留些兒防天陰。不想他會變化。」小妖急跑去报与老妖道：「大王，祸事了。」老怪道：「有甚祸事？」小妖道：「山前来了一个和尚，且是生得干净。我说拿家来蒸他吃，若吃不了，留些儿防天阴。不想他会变化。」
逐句解 Line by line
A little imp ran off in haste to report to the old fiend. "Great King, there is trouble."
禍事了 — disaster has happened — is the standing cry a subordinate demon brings to his chief in this novel, and it almost always means the pilgrims have arrived.
The old fiend said, "What trouble?"
甚 is shén, the question word again with its partner dropped. Seven characters, entirely unbothered.
The little imp said, "A monk has come up in front of the mountain, and a nice-looking clean one at that.
乾 is gān in 乾淨, clean — not the qián of the first trigram. And note what the imp means by clean: not washed but appetising. 得 is de, hanging the description on the verb — grew so that he is clean.
I said we should take him home and steam him, and if we could not finish him, keep a bit back against wet weather. I did not expect him to be able to change shape."
The housekeeping is the horror. 防天陰 is provisioning against a spell of overcast — you salt meat away because you may not be able to hunt. 吃不了 puts 了 at liǎo, to finish, not the le of a completed action.
The imp reports a captured monk the way a cook reports a delivery. Good quality, worth steaming, and set some aside in case the weather turns.
That domestic register is how this novel does menace. Nobody snarls. Somebody thinks practically about leftovers.