晚親義重 Kinship Late But Obligation Heavy
這猴子是個有名的賴皮，你如今教我怎的處？若論你令郎講起來，雖是恩女，不是親女，卻也晚親義重，不拘怎生折辨，你也有個罪名。」天王道：「老星怎說個方便，就沒罪了。」这猴子是个有名的赖皮，你如今教我怎的处？若论你令郎讲起来，虽是恩女，不是亲女，却也晚亲义重，不拘怎生折辨，你也有个罪名。」天王道：「老星怎说个方便，就没罪了。」
逐句解 Line by line
This monkey is a famous shameless rogue. What would you have me do about it now?
處 is chǔ here, to deal with or handle a matter — the verbal reading, not the chù of a place. 教 is jiào, to make somebody do a thing. 賴皮 is the same insult the four Celestial Masters used behind his back when he first came through the gate, and everybody in heaven appears to use it.
And to go by what your son says, though she is a daughter by kindness and not by blood, still the kinship came late and the obligation is heavy. However you argue it, you have a charge to answer."
令郎 is your son, the courteous form — Venus is being scrupulously polite while telling a Heavenly King he is guilty. 晚親義重 is the whole legal point in four characters: the tie was formed late, and the duty it created is weighty all the same. 重 is zhòng, heavy, not the chóng of a layer. 折辨 is to argue a case out, to dispute point by point.
The Heavenly King said, "Old Star, what form of words would you find that would leave me innocent?"
He has stopped denying anything. The question is no longer whether he is at fault but what can be said that will make the fault go away, and he asks it of the man whose profession that is.
Venus's judgement is the sharpest legal thinking in the chapter and it comes from the person with no authority to judge. Adoption is not blood, he says, and it still creates a duty — so the accusation was wrong in its facts and right in its substance.
That is why the case cannot simply be dismissed, and everyone in the room now knows it. What is left is not justice but a settlement, which is what Venus does for a living.