原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
方才該下雨 Only Then Shall Rain Fall
直等那雞嗛米盡，狗餂麵盡，燈燎斷鎖梃，他這裡方才該下雨哩。」八戒笑道：「不打緊，不打緊。直等那鸡嗛米尽，狗餂面尽，灯燎断锁梃，他这里方才该下雨哩。」八戒笑道：「不打紧，不打紧。
逐句解 Line by line
直等那雞嗛米盡，狗餂麵盡，燈燎斷鎖梃，他這裡方才該下雨哩。」
直等那鸡嗛米尽，狗餂面尽，灯燎断锁梃，他这里方才该下雨哩。」
"Only when that chick has pecked the rice away to nothing, and the dog has licked the flour away to nothing, and the lamp has burned through the shackle — only then is rain due to fall here."
嗛 is xián again. 盡 is jìn, exhausted — always this reading in this edition. 哩 closes the sentence on a neutral flourish, which after a speech like that lands oddly gently, almost like a shrug.
八戒笑道：「不打緊，不打緊。
八戒笑道：「不打紧，不打紧。
Bajie laughed. "No trouble at all, no trouble at all.
不打緊 is a set phrase meaning it doesn't matter, no bother — still in use. Bajie has listened to a description of eternal punishment and concluded that it is manageable.
The sentence ends and the flourish at the end of it softens the whole thing into something almost conversational. Only then is rain due to fall here, you know.
And Bajie's response is immediate and entirely in character. Everyone else in the courtyard has just understood that the conditions are impossible. Bajie has heard a quantity of food and a problem he thinks he can solve.