SHANGHAI — Xu Yao was executed on May 21, 2024, in Shanghai after being convicted of murdering Lin Qi by poisoning. The Shanghai court sentenced Xu to death in 2024 for the 2020 killing.

In December 2020, Xu poisoned Lin Qi by giving him pills disguised as probiotics that contained lethal toxins. The poisoning followed a professional dispute after Xu was sidelined by Lin shortly after helping him secure the Netflix deal for the adaptation of Liu Cixin’s 'The Three-Body Problem' trilogy.

Lin Qi, the 39-year-old founder of Shanghai-based Yoozoo Games, fell ill while driving home from the company’s headquarters on a winter evening and was hospitalized. He died on December 25, 2020. Several other employees also became sick after consuming contaminated items but recovered.

Court documents showed that Xu purchased highly toxic substances online, including alpha-amanitin, spending hundreds of thousands of yuan. He disguised poisons as probiotic pills and placed them in coffee capsules, water containers, and whiskey bottles shared with Lin and colleagues. Between September and December 2020, Xu replaced the contents of these items with methylmercury chloride.

Three-Body Universe, the company founded by Lin Qi, confirmed Xu’s execution in a statement on Weibo, saying, "Recently, the case concerning Mr. Lin Qi, the founder of Three-Body Universe, has finally reached its conclusion, and justice has ultimately been served." The statement added, "All of us at the company are deeply grateful for the upholding of justice."

Xu Yao had served as the former head of a subsidiary of Yoozoo Games. Lin Qi’s company held the film adaptation rights to Liu Cixin’s 'The Three-Body Problem' trilogy, and Lin was named as an executive producer in Netflix’s 2024 series based on the books.