原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
你會相面 Can You Read A Face
女子道：「你會相面？」行者道：「也曉得些兒。」女子道：「你相我怎的樣子？」女子道：「你会相面？」行者道：「也晓得些儿。」女子道：「你相我怎的样子？」
逐句解 Line by line
女子道：「你會相面？」
女子道：「你会相面？」
The woman said, "Can you read faces?"
相 is xiàng here, the verb — to read a face and tell a fortune from it. Physiognomy was a serious trade in Ming China, practised at street stalls.
行者道：「也曉得些兒。」
行者道：「也晓得些儿。」
Pilgrim said, "I know a little of it."
得 in the word for know is dé, the band after a verb of perceiving, and 兒 is ér.
女子道：「你相我怎的樣子？」
女子道：「你相我怎的样子？」
The woman said, "What sort do you read me for?"
相 is xiàng again, and the base reading has to be pushed to it — the mutual xiāng is the commoner word and the wrong one. She has handed him an opening and he is about to use it.
She changes tack and offers him a game, and the game is the best scene in the chapter. Can you read faces? A little. What do you make of mine?
For her it is flirtation and a way of keeping a wary boy talking. For him it is an invitation to say something insulting with complete deniability, and he takes it at once.
The verb here is the ordinary Ming word for a fortune-teller's trade, and it is the same character that means mutual or each other. Everything that follows turns on which of the two is meant.