大開著窗子 The Windows Wide Open
又去樓前跌跌腳,寡婦又上來道:「孫官人又有甚吩咐?」行者道:「我們在那裡睡?」婦人道:「樓上好睡,又沒蚊子,又是南風,大開著窗子,忒好睡覺。」又去楼前跌跌脚,寡妇又上来道:「孙官人又有甚吩咐?」行者道:「我们在那里睡?」妇人道:「楼上好睡,又没蚊子,又是南风,大开着窗子,忒好睡觉。」
逐句解 Line by line
He went to the stairhead and stamped again, and up came the widow: "What else do you want, Mr Sun?"
The second summons of the evening, by the same method. 甚 is shén again, the bare interrogative — what.
Pilgrim said: "Where are we to sleep?"
那 is nǎ, where. He is asking the landlady the question his master asked him, which is what he should have done first.
The woman said: "Upstairs is good for sleeping — no mosquitoes, a south wind, the windows wide open. Very good sleeping."
Two readings here that the base gets wrong. 著 is zhe, a state held open rather than an act of opening. And 覺 is jiào in 睡覺, to sleep — not the jué of waking or perceiving, which is the reading the same character takes in this chapter's own title, where it means awakening.
Her answer is a good landlady's and it is exactly wrong. Airy, cool, well ventilated, windows open — every selling point is a way for somebody to see in.
She is describing the best room in the house to four men who need the worst. The rest of the chapter is a negotiation downwards, and it ends in a box.