原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
小可的事 Our Small Trouble Harmed Your Master
眾僧害怕道：「老爺，小可的事，倒帶累老師；卻往那裡去尋？」行者道：「有處尋他。」众僧害怕道：「老爷，小可的事，倒带累老师；却往那里去寻？」行者道：「有处寻他。」
逐句解 Line by line
眾僧害怕道：「老爺，小可的事，倒帶累老師；
众僧害怕道：「老爷，小可的事，倒带累老师；
The monks were frightened and said, "Your reverence, a trifling matter of ours, and instead it has brought harm on your old master;
倒 is dào, the contrary sense again, and the base reading agrees this time. 小可 is a modest word for a small affair — they are calling six murders in their own house a trifle, out of politeness to a guest.
卻往那裡去尋？」
却往那里去寻？」
but where will you go to look for him?"
那 is nǎ, where — a real question, and nobody in the courtyard has an answer to it.
行者道：「有處尋他。」
行者道：「有处寻他。」
Pilgrim said, "There is a place to look for him."
Seven characters of complete confidence, and it is bluff. He has no idea where the master is, and the next scene is him beating the ground until somebody tells him.
The monks' first instinct on hearing that a man has been abducted is to apologise for the inconvenience, and to call the loss of six of their brothers a trifling matter of ours.
It is the same courtesy that kept them silent for three days and cost them four more lives. The novel has been consistent about these men: they are unfailingly considerate and it does them no good at all.
Pilgrim's reply sounds like knowledge and is nothing of the kind. There is a place to look — said by someone who does not know the name of the mountain, the cave, or the direction.