![]() ![]() The Shanghai court did not give details on the rift between Xu and Lin, but according to Chinese media reports citing sources in the company, it revolved around Lin’s ambition to adapt “The Three-Body Problem,” part of a trilogy by China’s most celebrated sci-fi author, Liu Cixin. He then made the lethal substances into a pill, gifting the “probiotic pills” to Lin, Caixin reported.Īccording to Phoenix News, a Chinese news outlet, Xu held 160 cellphone numbers and set up a trading company in Japan to acquire hazardous chemicals, including the substances he used to poison his colleagues.īetween September and December 2020, Xu swapped the coffee capsules, whiskey and bottled water in the offices of two executives with replacements injected with methylmercury chloride, an acute toxic that can be fatal if swallowed, inhaled or touched, Caixin reported last month, citing court documents. He set up a lab in a suburb of Shanghai and bought more than a hundred toxins on the dark web to experiment with, often testing mixed poisons on cats, dogs and other pet animals. Xu was a huge fan of “Breaking Bad,” an American series about a chemistry teacher who goes into the meth-making business after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, according to Caixin, citing people close to the company. (L to R) John Bradley as Jack Rooney, Jess Hong as Jin Cheng, Mark Gatiss as Isaac Newton, Reece Shearsmith as Alan Turing, Jenson Cheng as Kublai Khan in episode 103 of 3 Body Problem. In the months following Lin’s death, Chinese media outlets pieced together a more detailed – and chilling – account of the murder, which involved meticulous planning that lasted months.ģ Body Problem. Xu also poisoned beverages in the offices of two executives he had disputes with, causing four colleagues to fall sick, the court said. In its ruling last month, the Shanghai court said Xu had a dispute with Lin over “company management matters” and plotted to poison his boss through edible items over two days. Xu was identified as a key suspect and swiftly detained, according to a police statement at the time. He checked himself in to the hospital and initially recovered to a stable condition, but died 10 days later on Christmas Day, according to his company.Īt least five toxins were detected in Lin’s body, including mercury and tetrodotoxin – an extremely potent poison found in pufferfish, Chinese financial magazine Caixin reported, citing people close to the video game tycoon. ![]() On a winter evening in 2020, Lin was driving home from Yoozoo Games headquarters in Shanghai when he suddenly felt unwell. To Chinese tech entrepreneurs and fans of the books, the dramatically timed sentence served as a poignant reminder of the loss of a rising star in China’s once vibrant internet industry – and a pivotal figure in the making of one of China’s most successful pop culture exports. Xu was sentenced to death for murder by a court in Shanghai on March 22 - the day after the much-anticipated debut of “3 Body Problem” on Netflix. Media reports of the meticulously planned murder have gripped China, where it has drawn comparisons online to the American crime drama “Breaking Bad.” According to Chinese media outlets, it involved the mixing and testing of more than a hundred poisons in a makeshift suburban lab. ![]() The culprit was one of Lin’s own executives, a high-flying lawyer who helped Lin’s Yoozoo Games secure the rights to adapt the highly acclaimed trilogy.Īfter falling out with his boss, Xu Yao gifted Lin a bottle of what he said were probiotic pills, but which contained a cocktail of lethal toxins he bought off the dark web. Lin, who was named as an executive producer in the opening credits of “3 Body Problem,” was poisoned and killed at age 39, according to Chinese authorities, months after Netflix announced its plans to produce the series in 2020. ![]() Lin Qi, a billionaire fan of “The Three-Body Problem,” had big plans to bring his favorite Chinese sci-fi novel to TV, cinema and video-game screens across the world.įlush with cash after the listing of his gaming company in 2014, the young entrepreneur envisioned turning China’s most beloved sci-fi trilogy into a global pop culture phenomenon in the same league as “Star Wars.”Ī decade on, Lin would have been a step closer to achieving his dream when a Netflix adaptation of the Hugo Award-winning book drew millions of viewers worldwide – but the billionaire who helped make the show happen never lived to see it. ![]()
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