原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
又無風色 And No Draught Either
女兒道:「母親,我家有個黑處,又無風色,甚好,甚好。」婦人道:「是那裡?」女儿道:「母亲,我家有个黑处,又无风色,甚好,甚好。」妇人道:「是那里?」
逐句解 Line by line
女兒道:「母親,我家有個黑處,又無風色,甚好,甚好。」
女儿道:「母亲,我家有个黑处,又无风色,甚好,甚好。」
The daughter said: "Mother, we have a dark place, and no draught either. Very good, very good."
甚 here is shèn, very — the intensifying reading, not the shén that means what. The same character does both jobs in this chapter and the difference is entirely one of position. 風色 is the look of the wind, and in speech it simply means a draught.
婦人道:「是那裡?」
妇人道:「是那里?」
The woman said: "Where is that?"
Six characters. 那 is nǎ, where — and it is the last question anybody in this household asks before the trap closes.
The daughter has been the sensible one throughout — patient about trade, shrewd about guests, and now helpful about accommodation. Every good instinct she has is about to make things worse.
Her mother does not know what she is about to be told, and neither does the reader on a first pass. The novel has spent the whole evening establishing that the pilgrims need somewhere dark and shut away, and it now hands them exactly that.