The Shocking Murder of 3 Body Problem’s Billionaire Producer

A
Murder
Case
Takes
Shape

Within
a
day
of
his
passing,
state-run
media
in
China
were
reporting
that
Lin’s
death
was
being
investigated
as
a
suspected
murder
by
poisoning,
possibly
through
the
pu-erh
tea
he
was
known
to
drink.

Three
days
after
Lin
died,
Shanghai
police

said
in
a
statement
that
they
had
detained Xu
Yao
on
Dec.
18 “in
accordance
with
the
law
while
the
relevant
investigative
work
is
carried
out.”

Lin
had
hired
Xu,
a
lawyer
by
trade,
in
2017
to
head
up
The
Three-Body
Problem
Universe,
a
subsidiary
of
Yoozoo
devoted
to
adapting
the
books
for
the
screen
in
China,
according
to

Variety.

While
Chinese
authorities
didn’t
share
any
details
about
their
case
against
Xu,
the
murder
of
one
of
the
nation’s
richest
men
unsurprisingly
caused
a
media
frenzy.
The
magazine Caixin reported
that
Xu
was
disgruntled
after
being
demoted
and—being
a
huge
fan
of Breaking
Bad—built
a
whole
lab
to
test
various
poisons
he
purchased
on
the
dark
web.

In
announcing
the
guilty
verdict
and
death
sentence,
the
Shanghai First
Intermediate
People’s
Court

stated
on
its
official
WeChat
account,
according
to

the Times, that
Xu
plotted
to
poison
Lin
and
four
others in
the
office
who
were
sickened
but
did
not
die
after
drinking
tainted
beverages

between
September
2020
and
December
2020.