拖木頭 Carrying Timber Out Of The Temple
那老怪尋思無路，看著哪吒太子，只是磕頭求命。太子道：「這是玉旨來拿你，不當小可。我父子只為受了一炷香，險些兒和尚拖木頭──做出了寺。」那老怪寻思无路，看着哪咤太子，只是磕头求命。太子道：「这是玉旨来拿你，不当小可。我父子只为受了一炷香，险些儿和尚拖木头──做出了寺。」
逐句解 Line by line
The old fiend, casting about and finding no way out, looked at Prince Nezha and did nothing but knock her head on the ground and beg for her life.
看著 keeps 著 at zhe, looking and going on looking. She appeals to Nezha and not to Pilgrim, which is the correct choice: he is the one who called her sister. 太子 takes zǐ.
The prince said, "This is by the Jade Emperor's own order to take you. It is no small matter.
玉旨 is the Jade Emperor's edict, and 不當小可 is not to be counted a small thing. Nezha refuses the appeal on procedural grounds — the warrant is not his to set aside — which is exactly how he has behaved all chapter.
My father and I, only for taking a stick of her incense, came near enough to being monks dragging timber — carried clean out of the temple."
The chapter's one riddling proverb, and it needs unpacking. 和尚拖木頭 sets up a picture — a monk hauling a beam — and the answer follows the dash: 做出了寺. The phrase means carried it out of the temple and puns on a homophone meaning to have made a scandal. So Nezha is saying that one stick of incense nearly landed the two of them in public disgrace, and he says it as a joke, which is the only joke he makes. 父子 keeps 子 at zǐ, and 為 is wèi, on account of. ⚠ The long dash in the source is the printer's way of marking the pause before a riddle's answer, and the answer is the punchline.
The old fiend begs the one person in the room she has a claim on, and he turns her down on paperwork. It is the coldest moment in the chapter and it is entirely correct.
Then he makes a joke about the stick of incense, and it is the same stick his father apologised for in the road. Between them, father and son have now named the cause of the whole affair twice, and neither of them is sorry enough to let her go.