笑聲不絕 He Could Not Stop Laughing
略次些兒，寫著「尊兄哪吒三太子位」。行者見了，滿心歡喜，也不去搜妖怪，找唐僧，把鐵棒捻作個繡花針兒，揌在耳朵裡，掄開手，把那牌子並香爐拿將起來，返雲光，徑出門去。至洞口，唏唏哈哈，笑聲不絕。略次些儿，写着「尊兄哪咤三太子位」。行者见了，满心欢喜，也不去搜妖怪，找唐僧，把铁棒捻作个绣花针儿，揌在耳朵里，抡开手，把那牌子并香炉拿将起来，返云光，径出门去。至洞口，唏唏哈哈，笑声不绝。
逐句解 Line by line
and a little lower down was written HONOURED ELDER BROTHER, NEZHA, THIRD PRINCE, HIS PLACE.
The second tablet is the one that turns the chapter. Nezha is the boy-god who fought Pilgrim five hundred years ago and lost, and calling him elder brother makes the fiend his adopted sister. 太子 takes 子 at zǐ, the full third tone of literary and titular compounds — a prince, not the unstressed zi of everyday things like a rake handle or a signboard.
Pilgrim saw it and his heart filled with delight. He gave up hunting for the fiend and looking for the Tang Monk, pinched the iron rod down to an embroidery needle, tucked it into his ear, spread his hands, picked up tablets and incense burner together, turned his cloud round and went straight out of the door.
The change of plan is instant and total. He came down here to find a master; he leaves with the furniture, because the furniture is evidence. 揌 is a rare character meaning to stuff or tuck in, and it is the word for putting the needle back in his ear — a gesture the novel has shown so often it no longer explains it. 將 is jiāng, the disposal marker, sending the tablets in front of the verb that lifts them.
At the cave mouth he came out chortling and cackling, laughing without a stop.
唏唏哈哈 is a doubled pair of laughing noises, and the novel has a whole wardrobe of these — later in this chapter he will come out of the same cave 嘻嘻嗄嗄 instead. Reduplicated sound-words like these are how Chinese narrative does what a soundtrack does.
The passage that opened with a man weeping over a piece of rope ends with him helpless with laughter, and the thing that turned it round is a pair of name plates. He has not found the master, rescued anybody or beaten anyone; he has found a document.
That is the real shape of this chapter, and it is unusual for the book. The problem will not yield to a fight. What settles it is carrying two pieces of painted wood to court, and Pilgrim has understood that the instant he read the lettering.