安排停當 Everything Arranged and Set Out
咦!那些當廚的庖丁都是每日家做慣的手段,霎時間就安排停當,擺在樓上,又有現成的獅仙糖果,四眾任情受用。咦!那些当厨的庖丁都是每日家做惯的手段,霎时间就安排停当,摆在楼上,又有现成的狮仙糖果,四众任情受用。
逐句解 Line by line
Ah!
The storyteller's interjection again, one character and its own exclamation mark. Last time it warned of trouble; this time it is admiration.
The cooks on duty had the trick of it from doing it every day, and in a moment everything was arranged and set out upstairs, with the sugar lions and immortals ready made besides, and the four of them fell to as they pleased.
The same character does two jobs eleven characters apart. In 當廚 it is dāng, on duty, in charge of; in 停當 it is dàng, settled and in order. 庖丁 is a cook — and the phrase carries the memory of the butcher in Zhuangzi whose blade never dulled because he cut along the grain, which is the ancestor of every Chinese line about effortless skill.
The speed is the joke. Pilgrim's manoeuvre bought them a delay and the kitchen cancelled it by being extremely good at its job.
And the sugar lions arrive anyway — the one item from the upper-grade menu that never needed killing. They are getting the banquet after all, minus the part that would have damned them.