圍圍繞繞 A Hundred Little Pilgrims
即變做百十個小行者，圍圍繞繞，將那白澤、狻猊、摶象、伏狸並金毛獅怪圍裹在中。沙僧、行者卻又上前攢打。到晚，拿住狻猊、白澤，走了伏狸、摶象。金毛報知老怪。老怪見失了二獅，吩咐：「把豬八戒綑了，不可傷他性命。待他還我二獅，卻將八戒與他；他若無知，壞了我二獅，即將八戒殺了對命。」當晚群妖安歇城外不題。卻說孫大聖把兩個獅子精擡近城邊，老王見了，即傳令開門，差二三十個校尉，拿繩趕出門，綁了獅精，扛入城裡。即变做百十个小行者，围围绕绕，将那白泽、狻猊、抟象、伏狸并金毛狮怪围裹在中。沙僧、行者却又上前攒打。到晚，拿住狻猊、白泽，走了伏狸、抟象。金毛报知老怪。老怪见失了二狮，吩咐：「把猪八戒捆了，不可伤他性命。待他还我二狮，却将八戒与他；他若无知，坏了我二狮，即将八戒杀了对命。」当晚群妖安歇城外不题。却说孙大圣把两个狮子精抬近城边，老王见了，即传令开门，差二三十个校尉，拿绳赶出门，绑了狮精，扛入城里。
逐句解 Line by line
At once they turned into a hundred or so little Pilgrims, who ringed the spirits round and round, wrapping Baize, Suanni, Elephant-Grappler, Crouching-Civet and the Gold-Maned Lion fiend up in the middle of them.
圍圍繞繞 doubles both halves of the word for encircling, and the doubling is the picture: not one ring but ring upon ring, closing. This is the same magic that has rescued the pilgrims a dozen times, and the book still never bothers to explain it - only to describe what it looks like.
Sha Monk and Pilgrim then pressed forward again and closed in to strike.
攢 is cuán here - to converge from all sides onto one point - and not the zǎn that means to save up money. The two senses share a character and nothing else. With the lions already ringed by duplicates, converging is exactly what the word has to mean.
By nightfall they had taken Suanni and Baize; Crouching-Civet and Elephant-Grappler got away.
Two captured, two escaped, and the novel states it in eight characters without any commentary at all. The score matters more than the fighting, because the captives are about to become currency.
The Gold-Maned one carried word to the old fiend.
The Yellow Lion Spirit is called by his coat here rather than his name, which the novel does whenever it wants a character to be a messenger rather than a person.
The old fiend, seeing that two lions had been lost, gave his orders: "Tie up Zhu Eight Rules, but do not take his life.
The first words we hear from the nine-headed lion, and they are administrative. He has been in the chapter since the opening formation and has not spoken until now; when he does, it is to issue instructions about a hostage.
"When they give me back my two lions, then we hand Eight Rules over to them;
A prisoner exchange, negotiated in one clause. 還 is huán here, to give back, not the hái of still or yet that the same character carries elsewhere in the chapter. And note the tense: he assumes the trade will happen and is already planning past it.
"and if they are fools enough to do my two lions harm, then kill Eight Rules at once to pay for their lives."
對命 is to match a life against a life - the accounting language of a blood feud, where deaths are made to balance. The old fiend states both branches of the negotiation with the same flat calm.
That night the crowd of fiends camped outside the city, and of them we say no more.
不題 - we do not raise it - is the storyteller putting one thread down to pick up another, and it is always a promise that the thread will come back.
Now the Great Sage carried the two lion spirits up close to the city wall. The old king, seeing them, gave orders at once to open the gate, and dispatched twenty or thirty officers with ropes, who ran out of the gate, bound the lion spirits and hauled them into the city.
差 is chāi here, the sense of dispatching somebody on an errand, and not the chà that means wrong or wanting - the two readings sit on one character and are told apart only by what the sentence is doing. 校尉 is a real military rank of the old empire, roughly a company officer, which is a reminder that this walled city has an actual garrison behind its drums.
The hair trick arrives exactly when the chapter needs it, and the novel plays it straight rather than for wonder. There is no build-up and no explanation: he plucks, chews, blows, and there are a hundred of him. By this point in the book the reader is expected to take it as read, the way a reader of detective fiction takes fingerprints as read.
What is new is the arithmetic that follows. Two lions captured, two escaped - and immediately both sides start treating captives as currency. The old fiend orders Eight Rules kept alive specifically as a counter, and states the exchange rate out loud. The battle has turned into a negotiation without anybody declaring a truce.
The nine-headed lion finally speaks in this passage, and what he says is worth noting for later. He has been sitting in the middle of the formation since the first line of the chapter, silent, out-ranking everyone. His opening words are not a threat or a boast but a clear-headed instruction about hostages. That calm is the most alarming thing about him so far.