天送長生 Heaven Is Sending You Long Life
國丈笑道：「陛下且休煩惱。此兒刮去，正是天送長生與陛下也。」國王道：「見把籠中之兒刮去，何以返說天送長生？」国丈笑道：「陛下且休烦恼。此儿刮去，正是天送长生与陛下也。」国王道：「见把笼中之儿刮去，何以返说天送长生？」
逐句解 Line by line
The Royal Father-in-Law said with a laugh, "Your Majesty need not distress yourself.
He laughs for the second time in a hundred characters. The first was at Tripitaka's argument.
"These children being blown away is precisely heaven sending Your Majesty long life."
長 is cháng, long. The rhetorical move is the oldest one in the confidence trade: whatever has just gone wrong is reinterpreted as a better opportunity. He does it in fourteen characters and with no preparation at all.
The king said, "I see the children in the coops carried off, and you say instead that heaven is sending long life — how so?"
長 is cháng again. The king asks the obvious question and asks it reasonably, which is the last reasonable thing he does in the chapter.
The turn is instantaneous. A plan three years in the making has collapsed overnight, and the Royal Father-in-Law does not miss a beat — he laughs and reframes the loss as a promotion.
It is worth noticing that he had already seen Tripitaka that morning and said nothing about him. He sat through the whole debate with this in his pocket. The children were never the point; they were what was available.