Taiwanese Urban Legends: The Prince and the Boy on the Railway

★Following "The God-Snatching War," Chang Kuo-Li once again blends religion and tradition in a novel
★An adventure story of mythological characters viewed from a modern perspective
★Exploring identity anxiety and the choice of freedom through Taoist mythology

Unusual celestial phenomena, divine governance in disarray
The statue of Nezha at the scene of a disappearance case
Requires a Taoist priest and a child psychologist?
A child disappearance case involving one person being responsible for another's actions
A three-headed, six-armed mythical detective adventure

All the boys had a dream, a voice spoke to them
Birds led them out of the railway...

A boy who disappeared on the MRT to Yuanshan reappears at the abandoned "Xinkou Station" in Alishan; a boy who went from Banqiao Station to Jiangzicui to find a classmate was rescued on an abandoned railway in Mugua Mountain, Hualien; a boy who took a train from Tainan to Xinying ended up in Taipingshan, Yilan.

Unexplained disappearances of boys occurred repeatedly, and the only common clues were that they were born on the same lunar month and day, and they all heard the same sentence in their dreams: "I am the Crown Prince."

Child psychologist He Ruo-fen was entrusted by detective Yan Tu to assist with this strange case. She sought out Han Xi-yuan, a Taoist doctor, hoping to find clues from the missing boys' verbal responses using Han's religious knowledge. During the investigation, the three-person team consisting of the detective, the Taoist priest, and the psychologist encountered thunder, strong winds, and earthquakes at every location they visited. Moreover, the statues of Nezha in temples across Taiwan began to spin in unison.

As everything gradually sank into a supernatural quagmire, Yan Tu discovered that Han Xi-yuan's identity was concealed, and the case might have been related to him from the start.

"The little child wearing a yellow robe and a golden crown ran past, I chased, but couldn't catch up, he stopped and waited for me, I chased again. No matter how I chased, I could never catch him..."
The statues of Nezha across Taiwan kept spinning like tops, and the temples of the Five Battalion Generals were struck by lightning and caught fire...
Is it Nezha's wrath, or has he provoked someone?

"The other party also has three heads and six arms, just like Nezha."
Could it be that there are also true and false Crown Princes among the deities?