即又作怒 The Heavenly King Turned Angry
又見金星捧著旨意，即命焚香。及轉身，又見行者跟入，天王即又作怒。你道他作怒為何？又见金星捧着旨意，即命焚香。及转身，又见行者跟入，天王即又作怒。你道他作怒为何？
逐句解 Line by line
Seeing besides that the Gold Star was carrying an edict, he at once ordered incense to be lit.
Incense is lit because an edict is arriving, not because a guest is. The document outranks the man carrying it, and the household reacts to the paper. 著 is zhe, carrying it and still carrying it.
Then, as he turned, he saw Pilgrim come in behind, and the Heavenly King turned angry on the spot.
The timing is exact and comic. He has already committed to the ceremony — the incense is lit, the edict is being received — and only then does he see who else has walked in.
Do you know why he turned angry?
為何 keeps 為 at wèi, meaning for what reason. The narrator stopping to ask the audience a question is a leftover from the storyteller who used to be standing in front of them, and the answer takes up the whole of the next passage.
Three short segments, and the mood of the chapter changes completely. Incense, a turn, a face — and the courtesy of the last passage is over.
The narrator's question is the oldest device in the book and still the most efficient. It buys a digression into five-hundred-year-old history and makes the reader want it.