假作女子 The Monkey in the Bride's Shape
想是我來得遲了？」行者道：「不怪，不怪。」那妖道：「既不怪我，怎麼就丟我這一跌？」行者道：「你怎麼就這等樣小家子，就摟我親嘴？我因今日有些不自在；若每常好時，便起來開門等你了。你可脫了衣服睡是。」那怪不解其意，真個就去脫衣。行者跳起來，坐在淨桶上。那怪依舊復來床上摸一把，摸不著人，叫道：「姐姐，你往那裡去了？請脫衣服睡罷。」行者道：「你先睡，等我出個恭來。」那怪果先解衣上床。想是我来得迟了？」行者道：「不怪，不怪。」那妖道：「既不怪我，怎么就丢我这一跌？」行者道：「你怎么就这等样小家子，就搂我亲嘴？我因今日有些不自在；若每常好时，便起来开门等你了。你可脱了衣服睡是。」那怪不解其意，真个就去脱衣。行者跳起来，坐在净桶上。那怪依旧复来床上摸一把，摸不著人，叫道：「姐姐，你往那里去了？请脱衣服睡罢。」行者道：「你先睡，等我出个恭来。」那怪果先解衣上床。
逐句解 Line by line
I suppose I am come home late?" The Pilgrim said, "I am not cross, not cross at all."
來得遲: 得 is the manner marker de. He assumes the fault is his own. The Pilgrim's 不怪，不怪 answers the monster's 怪我 and puns on 怪, "monster," which is what the speaker has just called him.
The monster said, "If you are not cross with me, why did you throw me down so?"
丟我這一跌, "toss me this throw" — the verb takes the throw as its object, a vernacular construction. 那妖: demonstrative nà.
The Pilgrim said, "Why must you be so mean-spirited about it, catching hold of me and kissing me?
小家子, mean, of low breeding; 子 is the neutral suffix zi, not the lexical zǐ. The Pilgrim rebukes his "husband" for want of manners while sitting in a woman's shape on a stranger's bed.
I am not myself today; on an ordinary day I should have got up and opened the door for you.
不自在, out of sorts. 每常, on ordinary days. The excuse is domestic and entirely plausible — which is the joke.
You had better put off your clothes and sleep." The monster took no meaning from this, and went in all good faith to undress.
不解其意 is the narrator's dry verdict. 真個, "in good earnest," is used of the monster three times in this passage, always as he does exactly what he is told.
The Pilgrim sprang up and seated himself upon the night-stool. The monster came groping back to the bed as before, felt about, and found no one there.
淨桶, the chamber-pot or night-stool. 摸不著人: 著 is zháo, the goal not attained — he gropes, and finds nothing.
He called, "Sister, where have you gone? Come, take off your clothes and sleep."
你往那裡去了: interrogative nǎ. The monster, undressed and alone in the dark, calls plaintively for a wife who is sitting three feet away on the pot.
The Pilgrim said, "You sleep first; I am going out to relieve myself." The monster did indeed undress first and get into bed.
出個恭 — a genteel euphemism for going to the privy, from the examination-hall placard 出恭入敬. 果先解衣上床: 果, "sure enough."
The bedroom farce is played with a completely straight face, and the novel's tact is worth noticing. The monster wants to kiss his wife; the wife is a monkey; the monkey throws him on the floor and then scolds him for coarseness. The Pilgrim escapes the bed by a device of unimprovable vulgarity — 出個恭 — and Zhu Ganglie, who could blow down half the Great Wall, obediently undresses and lies down alone.
不解其意. The phrase covers everything. This monster is not stupid so much as unsuspicious: he has come home late, he expects to be scolded, he accepts a rebuke about his manners, and he never once considers that the shape in the dark is not his wife. The reader is being invited to like him some time before he is allowed to.