想是錯了路 You Must Have Lost Your Way
行者笑道：「你這獃子，想是錯了路，走向別處去。我過鼓樓，買了調和，急回來尋你不見，我先來了。在那裡揭甚皇榜？」行者笑道：「你这呆子，想是错了路，走向别处去。我过鼓楼，买了调和，急回来寻你不见，我先来了。在那里揭甚皇榜？」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim laughed. "You Idiot, you must have taken a wrong turning and gone off somewhere else.
想是 is 'I suppose' — about the mildest frame available for a flat contradiction of everything that has just been said.
"I went past the drum tower, bought the seasonings, hurried back to look for you and could not find you, so I came on ahead."
調 is tiáo, seasoning, for the seventh and last time in the chapter — and this is the one occasion on which anybody claims to have bought any.
"What royal notice did I take down, and where?"
甚 standing alone reads shèn, against the shén of 甚麼 that Eight Rules used a line earlier. Both readings inside two speeches.
Pilgrim lies fluently and in detail, and the detail is the tell. He did not go past the drum tower to a shop, he did not buy seasonings, and he did not come back looking for anybody — but the account comes furnished with a route and a purchase, because that is what a true one would have.
The last question is the coolest thing in the chapter. Not a denial but a request for particulars, put to a man who is holding the notice and has a delegation of palace officials at his back.