Shanghai police arrested a man over suspected death from poisoning the rich founder of a video game company.
Lin Qi, 39, died on Christmas Day, eight days after being taken to hospital with “acute symptoms of illness”, according to his company, Yoozoo Games Co, known for the strategy game Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming and as the producer of a Netflix adaptation of the sci-fi hit The Three-Body Problem.
Shanghai police said the hospital determined that Lin was poisoned. Police said they had arrested a 39-year-old Lin colleague with the surname Xu. The police statement states that Xu is a suspect and has been detained “according to the law, while the relevant investigation work is carried out”.
Yoozoo initially said that Lin was stable and improving, before the announcement of his death on Friday.
The company is one of the producers of a new Netflix series based on the trilogy of novels The Problem of Three Bodies by Liu Cixin. First published in 2008, they became popular around the world. Lin, president and chief executive of Yoozoo, was named co-producer on the series alongside Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss, Variety reported.
Lin, who founded Yoozoo in 2009, would have a net worth of about 6.8 billion yuan (770 million pounds), according to Hurun China Rich List. News reports reporting his death were seen about 300 million times on the Chinese social media site Weibo.
Citing industry sources, media organization Caixin said the arrested suspect may be a former Yoozoo director involved with the film subsidiary working on The Three Body Problem.
On Friday, Yoozoo posted a tribute to Lin, signed by the team. “You saw what was imperfect, but you still believed in beauty; he found rudeness, but he still believed in kindness, ”he said. “Together, we will continue to be kind, we will continue to believe in beauty and fight against all that is cruel.”