冤家路窄 Enemies on a Narrow Road
今日還在此間,正所謂『冤家路兒窄』也。」那國王聞言發怒,欲誅四眾。今日还在此间,正所谓『冤家路儿窄』也。」那国王闻言发怒,欲诛四众。
逐句解 Line by line
Today he is here again in this very place — truly, as the saying goes, 'foes will meet where the road is narrow.'”
還在此間: 還 = hái, still. Then the proverb, which the edition marks off as a quotation: 冤家路兒窄, "enemies meet where the road is narrow" -- there is no room to pass, so there is no avoiding the reckoning. It is still current, normally in a tighter four-character form without the extra syllable, and it is what you say when you run into precisely the person you were hoping not to. 兒 = er, the light ending on 路兒.
At these words the king flew into a rage and would have put the four of them to death.
那國王: 那 = nà. 發怒 "flew into a fury." 欲誅四眾: 誅 (zhū) "to put to death"; 四眾 "the four," the pilgrim band.
The Daoist finishes on a proverb and the king reaches for a death sentence. This is the chapter's first crisis, and it arrives fast: no defence has been heard, no witness called.
The proverb is well chosen and slightly too pleased with itself. Enemies meet on a narrow road -- so fate has delivered them, and nothing more need be argued. That smugness is the opening. Wukong is about to point out that a narrow road is not a witness.
What follows turns the whole shape of the chapter. A threatened execution becomes a public contest of powers, which is the arena Wukong wanted all along.