錯拿難送 Wrongly Taken, Not Lightly Returned
眾妖道：「這等說，唐僧吃不成，卻不把豬八戒錯拿了？如今送還他罷。」二魔道：「拿便也不曾錯拿，送便也不好輕送。唐僧終是要吃，只是眼下還尚不能。」眾妖道：「這般說，還過幾年麼？」二魔道：「也不消幾年。众妖道：「这等说，唐僧吃不成，却不把猪八戒错拿了？如今送还他罢。」二魔道：「拿便也不曾错拿，送便也不好轻送。唐僧终是要吃，只是眼下还尚不能。」众妖道：「这般说，还过几年么？」二魔道：「也不消几年。
逐句解 Line by line
The imps said: “By that reckoning, if Tripitaka can't be eaten, then wasn't Zhu Bajie taken in error after all?
這等說 (zhè děng shuō), “put that way, by such an account.” 卻不…了 (què bù … le) frames a rhetorical “then isn't it the case that…,” the imps drawing the awkward conclusion that the pig was a pointless catch.
“Best send him back to them now.”
送還 (sòng huán), “to send back, to return” — 還 read huán, “to give back,” not the hái of “still”; the closing 罷 (ba), hortative “let's.”
The second fiend said: “As for the taking, it was no error to take him; as for the sending, it would not do to send him back so lightly.
A balanced 拿便…送便… construction, “as for taking… as for sending…,” weighing the two courses. 輕送 (qīng sòng), “to send back rashly, to give up cheaply.”
“Tripitaka is to be eaten in the end — it is only that, for the present, we still cannot yet manage it.”
終是 (zhōng shì), “in the end, ultimately.” 還尚 (hái shàng), “still yet” — 還 here is hái, “still,” a doubled adverb of continuance with 尚.
The imps said: “Put that way, must we wait some years yet?”
還過幾年 (hái guò jǐ nián), “must yet pass a few years” — 還 again hái, “still, further.” The final 麼 (me) marks the question.
The second fiend said: “It won't take years, either.
不消 (bù xiāo), “need not, it won't require”; 消 in the sense “to need, to use up.” A colloquial dismissal of the imps' impatience.
The imps reason their way to a practical impasse: if the master cannot be eaten, the pig is dead weight, so return him. The second fiend refuses both horns — the taking was no mistake, and the returning would be a foolish forfeit. His formula is one of deferral rather than abandonment: Tripitaka will be eaten “in the end,” only not yet.
The exchange is a study in the demon's patience against his followers' short-sightedness. Where the imps think in terms of the immediate ledger — catch, cost, cut losses — their captain holds to a longer design, and his curt “it won't take years, either” both quiets their impatience and cues the stratagem he is about to disclose. The scene's craft lies in withholding that plan one beat longer, sharpening the appetite for it.