鄉中之水 A Cup of Home Water
叫丫鬟整酒接風賀喜。遂擎杯奉上道：「大王，燕爾新婚，千萬莫忘結髮，且吃一杯鄉中之水。」大聖不敢不接，只得笑吟吟，舉觴在手道：「夫人先飲。我因圖治外產，久別夫人，早晚蒙護守家門，權為酬謝。」叫丫鬟整酒接风贺喜。遂擎杯奉上道：「大王，燕尔新婚，千万莫忘结发，且吃一杯乡中之水。」大圣不敢不接，只得笑吟吟，举觞在手道：「夫人先饮。我因图治外产，久别夫人，早晚蒙护守家门，权为酬谢。」
逐句解 Line by line
She called the maids to set out wine, to welcome him home and drink to his good fortune.
接風 is the feast given for somebody back from a journey — literally, to meet the wind off them. 賀喜 is congratulation on a happy event. She is celebrating both his homecoming and, by implication, the marriage that kept him away.
Then she raised a cup and offered it, saying, "My lord, though you take your pleasure in a new marriage, do not for anything forget the wife of your hair-binding. Drink a cup of the water of your own country."
This toast is quotation all the way down. 燕爾新婚 comes from the Airs of Bei in the Book of Songs, and the poem it comes from is the lament of a woman set aside for another. 結髮 — the tying of the hair — names the first wife, the one married in the ceremony where the couple's hair is bound together. 中 is zhōng. She is quoting the classic text of the abandoned wife straight at the husband who abandoned her.
The Great Sage dared not refuse it, and could only smile and smile and take the goblet in his hand, saying, "Madam, drink first."
只得 takes dé. 不敢不接 is a double negative — he dared not not accept it — and it marks the first moment in the imposture when he is not in control of what he does.
"Because I was busy managing property abroad I have long been parted from you, and morning and evening you have kept and guarded this house. Let this stand for my thanks."
為 is the copular wéi in 權為酬謝 — let this stand provisionally as thanks. 圖治外產 recycles the excuse he improvised at the start of the scene, now promoted into a reason she should be grateful.
Her toast is the sharpest thing anybody says in this chapter, and it is made entirely out of quotation. 燕爾新婚 is lifted from a poem spoken by a woman displaced by a new wife; 結髮 names the wife of the first hair-binding. She congratulates her husband on his second marriage in the exact words of the classical complaint against second marriages, and offers him a cup of the water of home while she does it.
Whether she means the barb is left open, and that is the art of it. On the surface the toast is generous — welcome back, be happy, only remember me. Underneath, every phrase is drawn from the literature of desertion. The Great Sage, who is not her husband and has no idea what is being said to whom, dares not refuse the cup.
His own contribution is clerical where hers is literary. He explains his absence as property management, thanks her for keeping house, and offers the drink as recompense — let it serve provisionally in payment. He is settling an account. She has just quoted the Book of Songs at him.