蒸那胖和尚 Steam The Fat Monk
好大聖，嚶的一聲，飛在那前面走的女子雲髻上釘住。才過橋來，後邊的走向前來呼道：「姐姐，我們洗了澡，來蒸那胖和尚吃去。」行者暗笑道：「這怪物好沒算計，煮還省些柴，怎麼轉要蒸了吃？」好大圣，嘤的一声，飞在那前面走的女子云髻上钉住。才过桥来，后边的走向前来呼道：「姐姐，我们洗了澡，来蒸那胖和尚吃去。」行者暗笑道：「这怪物好没算计，煮还省些柴，怎么转要蒸了吃？」
逐句解 Line by line
That fine Great Sage gave a buzz and flew up to settle on the cloud-coiled hair of the woman walking in front.
嚶 is the sound of the fly. 雲髻 is hair dressed high in coils like cloud, and he lands in it. He has not changed again — he became a fly on the grass stem and he is still one, which is the whole method: get small, get close, stay there.
As they came over the bridge, one from behind walked up and called, "Sister, when we have had our bath, let us go and steam that fat monk and eat him."
和 is hé in 和尚. 姐姐 takes the doubled kinship form. The line is domestic in every particular — a bath first, then the cooking — and the object of the cooking is the man hanging in their hall.
Pilgrim laughed to himself: "These monsters have no head for planning. Boiling would save firewood — why on earth would you want him steamed?"
還 is hái, still, by comparison. 沒算計 — no reckoning, no head for it. He is criticising their method rather than their intention, and the joke is that he is right about the firewood.
The plan is announced casually, over a shoulder, on the way to the baths. Bath first, then steam the fat monk.
Pilgrim's response is the blackest joke in the chapter and it is a technical objection. Steaming is wasteful; boiling uses less wood. He has heard seven creatures discuss cooking his master and his first reaction is that they have got the method wrong.
It is worth sitting with how ordinary the women's exchange is. One calls to another as sister, proposes an order of business — wash, then cook — and nobody raises their voice. This is a household planning dinner.