這兩隻角 Saw Off Those Two Horns
近前仔細看了道：「這頭不是兵刀傷的啊。」摩昂笑道：「不是我喊得緊，連身子都著井星官吃了。」行者道：「既是如此，也罷，取鋸子來，鋸下他的這兩隻角，剝了皮帶去。犀牛肉還留與龍王賢父子享之。」又把辟塵兒穿了鼻，教角木蛟牽著；辟暑兒也穿了鼻，教井木犴牽著：「帶他上金平府見那刺史官，明究其由，問他個積年假佛害民，然後的決。」近前仔细看了道：「这头不是兵刀伤的啊。」摩昂笑道：「不是我喊得紧，连身子都着井星官吃了。」行者道：「既是如此，也罢，取锯子来，锯下他的这两只角，剥了皮带去。犀牛肉还留与龙王贤父子享之。」又把辟尘儿穿了鼻，教角木蛟牵着；辟暑儿也穿了鼻，教井木犴牵着：「带他上金平府见那刺史官，明究其由，问他个积年假佛害民，然后的决。」
逐句解 Line by line
He came up close and looked carefully and said, "This head was not hurt by any weapon."
仔細 — carefully, minutely. The first character is read zǐ here and not the sound it has when it means a young animal; the reading machinery reaches for the wrong one. Pilgrim is inspecting a corpse and can tell teeth from a blade.
Mo'ang said with a laugh, "If I had not shouted so hard, the Well star officer would have eaten the body too."
The prince makes a joke of it, which is the only available way to report that a colleague ate the prisoner. 喊得緊 puts the light de between the shouting and how hard it was. And 都著井星官吃了 uses 著 as the everyday mark of a passive — eaten by the Well star officer — which comes from the sense of suffering a thing done to you, and takes the reading zháo.
Pilgrim said, "Since that is how it is, very well then. Fetch a saw and saw off these two horns of his, and strip the hide and take it along.
The chapter's second held reading sits in three characters. 也罷 — very well then, so be it — is a fixed unit built on the verb meaning to cease, and it keeps that verb's full sound bà. It is not the light ba that this chapter uses four times to soften a suggestion, in phrases like "let us go, shall we". Same character, two different words, and the difference is whether it is carrying meaning or only tone.
The rhinoceros meat may be left for the Dragon King and his worthy son to enjoy."
Payment in kind, and it is offered as a courtesy. 賢父子 — worthy father and son. The Dragon King turned out his whole household at a word and gets a carcass for it, which by the customs of this novel is generous.
They put a ring through Dust-Averting's nose too, and gave him to the Horn Wood Dragon to lead;
The second nose-ring. Both surviving kings are now being led on a tether by a constellation, which is where a chapter about rank was always going to end. 牽著 has the sustained zhe: leading, and going on leading.
Heat-Averting had his nose rung as well, and was given to the Well Wood Hound to lead: "Take them up to Jinping Prefecture to see the prefect there, have the whole thing looked into, and charge them with years of playing false Buddhas and harming the people — and after that, sentence passed."
The chapter's real ending, and it is a court order. 明究其由 — investigate the cause and make it plain. 積年假佛害民 is a charge sheet in six characters: years on end of false Buddhas and harm to the people. And 的決 is a term of Ming law for a sentence carried out at once rather than held over for review; the first character takes the reading dì there, the same one it had in the phrase meaning "exactly" back at the Dipper and Ox Palace.
Batch three ends with the chapter turning from an adventure into a legal proceeding, and the change of vocabulary is complete. Investigate the cause. Charge them. Sentence carried out. Two prisoners are led away by the nose to a prefect's court, to answer for years of impersonating Buddhas and taking a town's lamp-oil.
This is what Pilgrim meant when he shouted "take them alive" in the middle of the sea fight. He did not want a victory. He wanted defendants — and the difference matters, because the town of Jinping has been paying fifty thousand taels a year to three creatures nobody could name. A dead demon proves nothing. A demon in a courtroom with a ring through his nose proves the whole thing.
And then there is the practical business of the horns, which is where the chapter's title has been pointing all along. The four star-gods were sent because rhinoceros horn answers to the constellations. The three kings were named for what their horns were believed to do — keep off cold, keep off heat, keep off dust. Now the horns are being sawn off and carried away, and the meat is going to the Dragon King. Everything these creatures were is being distributed as goods.