兜飯舀水 Carrying Rice and Fetching Water
正走間，聽得有人叫「八戒」。八戒擡頭看時，卻是沙僧站在山崖上喊道：「這裡來，這裡來。」及下崖，迎至面前道：「這澗裡好清水不舀，你往那裡去的？」八戒笑道：「我到這裡，見山凹子有個人家，我去化了這一缽乾飯來了。」沙僧道：「飯也用著，只是師父渴得緊了，怎得水去？」八戒道：「要水也容易，你將衣襟來兜著這飯，等我使缽盂去舀水。」正走间，听得有人叫「八戒」。八戒抬头看时，却是沙僧站在山崖上喊道：「这里来，这里来。」及下崖，迎至面前道：「这涧里好清水不舀，你往那里去的？」八戒笑道：「我到这里，见山凹子有个人家，我去化了这一钵干饭来了。」沙僧道：「饭也用着，只是师父渴得紧了，怎得水去？」八戒道：「要水也容易，你将衣襟来兜着这饭，等我使钵盂去舀水。」
逐句解 Line by line
Just as he was walking he heard someone calling out, “Bajie.”
The source puts the name in brackets -- 叫 and then 八戒 set off -- naming the word that is shouted rather than reporting speech. It is the same trick of punctuation the chapter used at Potalaka when Sudhana caught that one 告 character and made a joke of it. 正走間 takes 間 as the interval, jiān.
Bajie lifted his head to look, and there was Sha Monk standing on the cliff shouting: “Over here! Over here!”
看時 is the "on looking" frame, with 看 at kàn.
He came down off the cliff and met him face to face, saying: “There is good clear water in this ravine and you have drawn none. Where have you been off to?”
那裡去 is the where-question, 那 at nǎ. 好清水 takes 好 as the ordinary intensifier hǎo -- this character has no automatic guard, so every one of its appearances in the chapter is checked by hand.
Bajie laughed: “When I got here I saw a house in a fold of the hills, and went and begged this bowl of cooked rice.”
乾飯 takes 乾 at gān -- rice cooked dry, as opposed to gruel -- and not the qián that belongs to the trigram name and that an automatic reading supplies. 山凹子 takes 子 as the ending, zi.
Sha Monk said: “The rice will be wanted right enough, but the master's thirst has grown desperate. How are we to come by water?”
Three readings jostle in one nineteen-character line. 用著 is 著 marking something reached or hit upon, zháo; 渴得緊了 takes 得 as the link that hangs a consequence off the verb, de; and 怎得水去 takes the same character as attainment, dé -- how are we to come by any.
Bajie said: “Water is easy enough. Take the skirt of your robe and carry the rice in it, and let me use the alms-bowl to draw some.”
兜著 is the held-in-progress 著, zhe. The arrangement they settle on -- one carries the rice in his robe, the other fills the bowl -- is the last practical thing either of them does before the road caves in.
Six segments of ordinary competence. The two disciples find each other, compare what they have, work out that one can carry rice in the skirt of his robe while the other fills the bowl, and settle it without a quarrel. It is the only stretch of the chapter in which anybody cooperates with anybody.
The irony is doing all the work. Sha Monk teases Bajie for coming back without water; Bajie laughs and produces his bowl of crust; both are pleased with themselves. Neither knows the errand has been pointless for two passages, and the reader has known it the whole time. The novel lets the scene run its full length without dropping a single hint inside it.