演三岔口

yǎnsānchàkǒu ㄧㄢˇ ㄙㄢ ㄔㄚˋ ㄎㄡˇ

    • to find after arguing that the two sides never actually clashed

Character by character

Saying俗语俗語

Idiom惯用语 · Rarely used now

Literally
perform 'At the Crossroads'
Meaning
After arguing for a while, two sides discover they never actually clashed. It alludes to the Peking opera in which fighters grope in pretend darkness without hitting each other.

Sources