四更三點 The Fourth Watch, Third Point
漸漸天晚，聽得樓頭起鼓，火甲巡更。捱至四更三點，行者見他們都不呻吟，盡皆睡著，他暗想道：「師父該有這一夜牢獄之災。老孫不開口折辨，不使法力者，蓋為此耳。如今四更將盡，災將滿矣，我須去打點打點，天明好出牢門。」你看他弄本事，將身小一小，脫出轄床。渐渐天晚，听得楼头起鼓，火甲巡更。挨至四更三点，行者见他们都不呻吟，尽皆睡着，他暗想道：「师父该有这一夜牢狱之灾。老孙不开口折辨，不使法力者，盖为此耳。如今四更将尽，灾将满矣，我须去打点打点，天明好出牢门。」你看他弄本事，将身小一小，脱出辖床。
逐句解 Line by line
Little by little the night wore on. They heard the drum start up in the tower and the fire-watch going their rounds. When it had dragged on to the third point of the fourth watch, Monkey saw that none of them was groaning any longer and all were fast asleep, and thought privately, "It was written that my master should have this one night of prison for his calamity."
⚠ 捱至 — dragged on until. This is the word for waiting something out that you cannot escape, and here the book writes it with the character kept specially for that sense, so the reading comes out right unaided. Earlier in the chapter, when the four of them sat out the rain until dawn, it used the general character instead and the reading came out wrong. ⚠ 四更 — the fourth watch. The night's five watches again, and the pattern in this chapter is exact: where the character stands alone, as in 巡更 here or the fifth watch shortly, it reads correctly; where a numeral sits in front of it, it does not. ⚠ 睡著 — fast asleep. The character after the verb marks sleep arrived at rather than sleeping going on, which is a third job again for a character this chapter has already used two other ways.
"The reason old Monkey has not opened his mouth to argue, and has used no magic, is precisely this. Now the fourth watch is nearly out and the calamity nearly full. I had better go and make some arrangements, so that we can get out of the prison gate by daylight."
⚠ 蓋為此耳 — that is the whole reason. Monkey explains himself to nobody, at four in the morning, in a cell. He has said nothing and done nothing all day on purpose. ⚠ 災將滿矣 — the calamity is nearly full. This is the book's own accounting: the pilgrims must undergo a fixed number of ordeals and each one has to run its course. Monkey has been sitting out a quota. 打點打點 — make some arrangements. The doubled verb makes it casual, and what it actually means is a night of impersonating ghosts.
Look at him work his craft: he made his body small, a little smaller, and slipped out of the restraining frame.
將身小一小 — made his body small, a little smaller. The doubled verb with the number in the middle is a light, quick construction — a shrink and another shrink. The frames that held four men down all night are simply left behind. It takes six characters. The book has spent three thousand characters showing that Monkey's powers are useless against a document, and here it reminds us in passing what those powers actually are.
Monkey explains his whole day in one sentence, to himself, in the dark. He did not argue in court and did not use magic because the arrest was scheduled — one of a fixed number of ordeals the pilgrimage has to work through. He was not helpless. He was waiting.
That reframes everything before it. The refusal to kill the robbers, the silence at the trial, the head-band snapping four times without his lifting a finger, standing still to be tied — all of it was a decision to let the thing run. The book gives us the explanation only after we have watched him take the beating.
And the moment the quota is nearly filled, he simply shrinks and walks out. He could have done it at any point in the previous eight hours. The prison holds him for exactly as long as he thinks it ought to.