仍欠五兩 Five Taels Still Owing
漸漸近於門口，又見一叢大大小小的雜項妖精，在那花樹之下頑耍。忽聽得八戒「呵呵」趕豬羊到時，都來迎接。便就捉豬的捉豬，捉羊的捉羊，一齊綑倒。早驚動裡面妖王，領十數個小妖，出來問道：「你兩個來了？買了多少豬羊？」行者道：「買了八口豬，七腔羊，共十五個牲口。豬銀該一十六兩，羊銀該九兩。前者領銀二十兩，仍欠五兩。這個就是客人，跟來找銀子的。」渐渐近于门口，又见一丛大大小小的杂项妖精，在那花树之下顽耍。忽听得八戒「呵呵」赶猪羊到时，都来迎接。便就捉猪的捉猪，捉羊的捉羊，一齐捆倒。早惊动里面妖王，领十数个小妖，出来问道：「你两个来了？买了多少猪羊？」行者道：「买了八口猪，七腔羊，共十五个牲口。猪银该一十六两，羊银该九两。前者领银二十两，仍欠五两。这个就是客人，跟来找银子的。」
逐句解 Line by line
As they drew near the entrance they saw a whole crowd of assorted fiends, great and small, playing about under the flowering trees.
雜項妖精 — assorted fiends, sundry fiends — is an inventory clerk's phrase, and the novel uses it deliberately. These are not named enemies but stock, and the same word will be used for them again when they are dead.
Hearing Eight Rules go ha-ha as he drove the pigs and sheep up, they all came out to meet him.
The laugh is a signal, and it works because the real servant presumably laughed like that too. Eight Rules is playing the part better than anyone expected.
So it was pig-catchers to the pigs and sheep-catchers to the sheep, and they trussed the lot together.
The line repeats its own grammar twice over — catch the pigs, catch the sheep — which is the same work-gang rhythm Eight Rules invented for his imaginary thieves back at the palace. Here it is real.
This soon roused the fiend king within, who came out with a dozen or more little fiends and asked, "So you two are back?
The monster is drawn out by the noise of a delivery. His first words are the same words his messenger used in the road, which suggests it is simply what one says.
"How many pigs and sheep did you buy?"
The identical question, asked for the second time in this chapter. Pilgrim dodged it in the road; he cannot dodge it here, because the animals are already being counted.
Pilgrim said, "We bought eight pigs and seven sheep — fifteen head in all.
And here is the improvisation. The prince bought seven or eight pigs and four or five sheep; Pilgrim announces eight and seven. He has invented a precise figure that flatters the buying and rounds the total to a memorable fifteen.
"The pig-silver comes to sixteen taels, the sheep-silver to nine.
Sixteen and nine make twenty-five, and he has built the arithmetic backwards from the answer he wants. A tael is the Chinese ounce of silver; two taels a pig and a little over one a sheep are plausible market prices, which is why nobody checks.
"Earlier we received twenty taels, so five are still owing.
The trap closes. He has turned the stolen purse into a debt the monster owes him, and the debt is what will get Sha Monk through the door.
"This gentleman here is the dealer, come along to collect his silver."
The cover story, produced at exactly the right moment and now backed by arithmetic. Sha Monk still has not spoken.
This passage is a small masterpiece of confidence trickery, and its weapon is bookkeeping. Pilgrim cannot know what the real servants agreed, so he invents a complete set of accounts — head count, unit prices, sum received, balance due — and delivers them fast and specific. Precision is what makes a lie sound checked.
The five taels owing are the crucial invention. Without a debt, Sha Monk is a stranger with no reason to come inside; with one, he is a creditor, and a creditor cannot politely be turned away at the gate. Everything that happens in the cave rests on that manufactured shortfall.
Note too what has happened to the prince's vague order. Seven or eight pigs and four or five sheep have become exactly eight and exactly seven, and neither the monster nor the reader can easily tell that anything has been adjusted. The chapter has been quietly setting this up since the steward went shopping.