動問妖怪 How Many Monsters?
坐定，高老問道：「適間小价說，二位長老是東土來的？」三藏道：「便是。貧僧奉朝命往西天拜佛求經，因過寶莊，特借一宿，明日早行。」高老道：「二位原是借宿的，怎麼說會拿怪？」行者道：「因是借宿，順便拿幾個妖怪兒耍耍的。動問府上有多少妖怪？」高老道：「天哪！還吃得有多少哩，只這一個妖怪女婿，已被他磨慌了。」行者道：「你把那妖怪的始末，有多大手段，從頭兒說說我聽，我好替你拿他。」坐定，高老问道：「适间小价说，二位长老是东土来的？」三藏道：「便是。贫僧奉朝命往西天拜佛求经，因过宝庄，特借一宿，明日早行。」高老道：「二位原是借宿的，怎么说会拿怪？」行者道：「因是借宿，顺便拿几个妖怪儿耍耍的。动问府上有多少妖怪？」高老道：「天哪！还吃得有多少哩，只这一个妖怪女婿，已被他磨慌了。」行者道：「你把那妖怪的始末，有多大手段，从头儿说说我听，我好替你拿他。」
逐句解 Line by line
When they were seated, Old Gao asked, "My man said just now that your two reverences come from the Land of the East?"
小价 is a modest word for one's own servant — my man. The character 价 here is writing 介, not 價, price, and so is read jiè; the default gives jià. 適間 is just now.
Sanzang said, "It is so. This poor monk goes at the command of the court to worship the Buddha in the West and seek the scriptures. Passing your worthy village, I beg a single night's lodging, and shall take the road early tomorrow."
奉朝命 is at the court's command, and 朝 is cháo. 寶莊, your precious village, is the polite form for a host's place. Notice that Sanzang says nothing whatever about monsters. His entire speech is a request for a bed.
Old Gao said, "You came only to lodge, then. How is it you speak of catching monsters?"
The old man is quick. He has been given two accounts that do not agree, and he puts the discrepancy plainly. The boast 會拿怪, able to catch monsters, came from Gao Cai — who had it from the Pilgrim, not from the monk now asking for a bed.
The Pilgrim said, "We came to lodge, and while we are about it we shall catch a monster or two, for the sport of it. May I ask how many monsters your house has?"
順便 is while we are about it, as it happens to suit. 妖怪兒 puts the little 兒 on the end of monster, read er, and the effect is contemptuous: monsterlets. 耍耍 is for the fun of it. 動問 is a courteous may I ask — and the courtesy is the joke. May I ask how many monsters you keep?
Old Gao said, "Heaven above! How many more do you suppose we could stomach? This one monster of a son-in-law has worn us to death already."
天哪 is heavens above, with 哪 read na; the novel writes it 天那 elsewhere. 還吃得有多少哩 is how many more could we stomach. 磨慌 is ground down and frightened out of your wits at once — worn to death is about the force of it.
The Pilgrim said, "Tell me the whole story of that monster from the beginning — what powers he has — and I shall be better able to take him for you."
始末 is from first to last, beginning and end. 從頭兒 keeps the little 兒, er. And 好 in 我好替你拿他 is hǎo in its purposive sense, so that I may — not so that it will be good.
Two registers collide across the tea table. Sanzang speaks the formal language of an imperial commission — 奉朝命, 寶莊, 特借一宿 — and asks for nothing but a bed. The Pilgrim answers in the idiom of a man offering to clear your rats: monsters taken 順便, in passing, 耍耍的, for the fun of it, and the little 兒 of 妖怪兒 shrinking a household's three-year terror to vermin.
Squire Gao's 天哪 is the first honest note in the exchange. He has been asked how many monsters he keeps, in the tone one might use about horses, and the absurdity breaks his composure. 磨慌了, ground down and frightened, is a wonderfully domestic verb for what has been done to this family, and it is the last thing he says before the long confession of the next passage.