一隻花鞋 Nothing But A Flowered Shoe
且說八戒閃個空，一鈀把妖精打落地，乃是一隻花鞋。行者看見道：「你這兩個獃子，看著師父罷了，誰要你來幫甚麼功？」八戒道：「沙和尚，如何麼？我說莫來。且说八戒闪个空，一钯把妖精打落地，乃是一只花鞋。行者看见道：「你这两个呆子，看着师父罢了，谁要你来帮甚么功？」八戒道：「沙和尚，如何么？我说莫来。
逐句解 Line by line
Meanwhile Bajie had found an opening, and one blow of the rake knocked the fiend to the ground — where she turned out to be a single flowered shoe.
The line is built for the drop at the end. Bajie lands the blow he has been wanting for the whole chapter, and what is lying in the dust is footwear. 閃個空 is to slip into a gap, to catch an opening.
Pilgrim saw it and said, "You pair of idiots. You were to keep an eye on the master — who asked you to come and help with anything?"
著 is zhe, the marker of a continuing state: watch the master, and keep on watching him. 罷了 takes bà, the full fourth tone, and closes the clause off: that was the job, and that was all of it. 甚麼 is the everyday what, with 甚 as shén.
Bajie said, "Sha Monk, how about that?
Bajie turns to his brother for support before Pilgrim has even finished. He is not sorry; he is looking for a witness.
I said we should not come.
He did not say that. He said no, no, no and then went anyway, which is not the same thing at all. The novel lets the lie stand without comment.
The reversal lands in three stages: a triumphant blow, a shoe, and then Pilgrim pointing out that the triumph cost them the master. Bajie is still congratulating himself when the ground goes out from under him.
His defence is a rewriting of the record from five passages back, and it takes him one short line. Anyone who has been in an argument about who agreed to what will recognise the manoeuvre exactly.