The turnkeys came again and beat them at random. Tripitaka could not bear the pain of it, and only cried, "Wukong! What are we to do? What are we to do?"

Two readings of one character, twelve places apart. 禁子, the turnkeys, takes the prison reading; and in the very next clause 難禁 — could not bear it — takes the endure reading, which is a different word written the same way. The chapter uses this character eight times and this is the only one that is not the prison. 亂打 — beat them at random. Not an interrogation, not a punishment. The gaolers are beating them because that is what happens to new prisoners, and everyone involved understands why.

Monkey said, "They are beating us because they want money. As the old saying goes, 'In an easy place, settle down; in a hard place, spend money.' Give them a little money now and that will be the end of it."

『好處安身，苦處用錢。』 — in an easy place settle down, in a hard place spend money. The edition marks it as a quotation with its own inner brackets, the third proverb the chapter has set off that way. It is bleakly practical advice about prison, and it is completely accurate. The beating is a demand for a bribe and Monkey has recognised it immediately — which tells you he has been in a cell before. 便罷了 — and that will be the end of it. The character before the last one is the verb meaning to have done with a thing, which is a different job from the one it does three times in the next few lines.

Tripitaka said, "Where would money of mine come from?" Monkey said, "If there is no money, goods will do. Give them that cassock, then."

與了他罷 — give it to him, then. Here the last character is a softener that turns the sentence into a suggestion, and it takes the light reading. Two lines up the same character was the verb and kept its full weight. Position and job, again, and nothing else to go on. 我的錢自何來？ — where would money of mine come from? Tripitaka has taken no money for a hundred chapters. It is the one thing he has been consistent about, and it is now a liability.

When Tripitaka heard this it was as if a knife had gone into his heart. But seeing after a moment that he could not stop the beating, he had to speak up. "Wukong — as you please, then."

就如刀刺其心 — as if a knife had gone into his heart. The cassock is not luggage. It was given to him by a bodhisattva at the start of the journey, it is the mark of his commission, and in an early chapter he nearly lost his life over it. 隨你罷 — as you please, then. Three characters, and the last is the softener again. It is surrender, and the book gives it no more room than that. 只得 — had to, could only. The same phrase the book used of Monkey when he wanted to kill the robbers and did not.