相貌醜陋 Your Face Is Too Ugly
三藏道：「你的相貌醜陋，言語粗俗，怕衝撞了他，問不出個實信。」行者笑道：「我變個俊些兒的去問他。」三藏道：「你是變了我看。」三藏道：「你的相貌丑陋，言语粗俗，怕冲撞了他，问不出个实信。」行者笑道：「我变个俊些儿的去问他。」三藏道：「你是变了我看。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, "Your features are coarse and ugly and your speech is rough. I am afraid you will give offence and get no straight answer out of him."
相 is xiàng here, outward appearance, not the xiāng of mutual or reciprocal. The objection is practical and completely rude, and it is the one Tripitaka raises every time: the monkey looks like what he is, and people will not talk to him. 衝撞 is to give offence by barging in; 實信 is a straight answer, a report you can rely on. The master is worried about interview technique.
Pilgrim laughed. "I will change into something better-looking and go and ask him."
俊些兒的 is casual spoken Chinese doing a great deal in four characters — handsome-ish, a bit prettier, one of those. 兒 keeps its full ér; this project reads it that way everywhere, and the previous chapter agrees at all thirty-three of its occurrences. Note what Pilgrim does not do. He does not argue with the insult. He treats his own face as a wardrobe problem.
Tripitaka said, "Go on and change, then, and let me see."
Five characters, and the tone turns over completely. 變了我看 is not a request but a challenge — go on, do it, let me look. The old man who was face down in the grass a few lines ago is now asking for a demonstration.
The argument here is about credibility, and both sides are right. Tripitaka knows that a stranger asked a question by something with a monkey's face will not answer honestly. Pilgrim knows he can simply stop having a monkey's face.
What makes the exchange work is how little either of them minds. The insult is delivered flatly and taken flatly. In a novel that spends a great deal of time on Pilgrim's pride, his appearance is the one thing he has never been touchy about, probably because it is the one thing he can change at will.
And the master's last line is the surprise. Having been terrified, helped up off the ground and talked round, he ends the scene issuing an instruction. The fear has not gone anywhere; he has simply found somebody to hand it to.