焚香默祝 Incense and a Silent Prayer
眾官聽說，著兩個急去郡中報道：「老爺，萬千之喜至也。」那郡侯正焚香默祝，聽得報聲喜至，即問：「何喜？」众官听说，着两个急去郡中报道：「老爷，万千之喜至也。」那郡侯正焚香默祝，听得报声喜至，即问：「何喜？」
逐句解 Line by line
Hearing this, the officials sent two of their number hurrying off to the prefecture to report: "Your Honour, joy beyond counting has arrived!"
著 is zhuó here, and it is a different word from the zhe of a few passages back. This is the dispatching sense — to send someone to do something. Ming vernacular leaned on this character the way modern Chinese leans on 讓, and it accounts for four of the sixteen in this chapter. 萬千之喜, joy in the ten thousands, is the sort of thing a subordinate says when he is very keen to be the bearer of good news.
The prefect was just then burning incense and praying in silence when he heard the shout that joy had come, and asked at once, "What joy?"
得 is dé here, attached to a verb of perception — heard and took in. This is the single commonest use of the character in the chapter. 焚香默祝, burning incense and praying without speaking, is the first thing we see the prefect do, and it is worth filing away. Before he is introduced, before he speaks, he is shown praying.
Our first sight of Shangguan is not of a man behind a desk but of a man burning incense on his own, saying nothing aloud. The novel could have introduced him any number of ways and chose this one.
It matters because the chapter's whole problem is an offence against heaven, and the reader is about to be told that this same man committed it. Putting the prayer first means we meet the penitent before we meet the offender — so when the accusation lands, it lands on somebody we have already watched doing the right thing in an empty room.