The online game company tycoon Lin Qi, who also holds copyrights for movie and TV adaptations of the Chinese sci-fi epic "The Three-Body Problem," was allegedly "poisoned" by a film executive.

The dramatic rumor was rampant on social network platforms for days, with some internet users claiming that Lin, chairman and chief executive officer of Yoozoo Group, was rushed to "Intensive Care" and was suffered such severe poisoning that he was in a "vegetative state."

Yoozoo released a statement on Wednesday to elaborate on the situation: "In the last week there was a sudden emergency but the company's executives have returned to normal since." The statement revealed that Lin had acute uncomfortable symptoms on the evening of Dec. 16, when he was on the way home, and that he decided to go to the hospital himself. The hospital contacted the police during the treatment process. Lin remains hospitalized but has begun his recovery and is said to be in a stable physical state.

Yoozoo didn't name the suspect but said he works for the film and TV branch of the company. The main body of the company, and which is listed on the stock market, is Yoozoo's online games branch, Yoozoo Games Co., Ltd. The company states that all executives and core staff of the online games branch are present at work and operations of the company are normal.

To reassure the investors, the statement further added that the company has reported the case to multiple levels of the municipal government leadership, who instructed that they will "treat Lin as a priority, strictly handle the case, and keep the company's operations stable."

According to Yoozoo Games' third-quarter report, the company attained an operating income of 3.724 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2020, a year-on-year increase of 40.95%. However, net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company stands at 560 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 20.56%. As of Dec. 23, share prices for Yoozoo were 14.07 yuan, down 2.83%, for a total market value of 12.886 billion yuan.

Shanghai police released a statement on Wednesday evening that local police received a report at 5 p.m. on Dec. 17 that Mr. Lin, 39, was suspected to have been poisoned. Following the supposed incident, police began to conduct crime scene surveys and expand their investigation, finding that one of Lin's colleagues, Mr. Xu, also 39, was most likely the suspect. Currently, Xu is being held in criminal detention by the police and an investigation is underway. 

The statement didn't link the individuals surnamed Lin and Xu to Yoozoo, though the Beijing News and several other media outlets cited it as a relevant police response to the specific incident.

Founded by Lin in 2009, Yoozoo is a world-leading provider of interactive entertainment. The company's mobile developer platform Mob is used by 6 billion mobile devices, through strategic partnerships with industry giants like Google, Facebook, and Alibaba.

After being listed on China's stock market, Yoozoo established Yoozoo Pictures in 2014. The most infamous project headed by the company so far has been the "The Three-Body Problem" film series. Lin bought film and TV adaptation rights to the Hugo Award-winning sci-fi book trilogy by Liu Cixin, boasting that he would invest 1.2 billion yuan to make six films in total. However, the first film project was a mess and eventually shelved. 

After the initial film's failure, several film executives resigned and Yoozoo established a new subsidiary company called Three Body Universe (Shanghai) Cultural Development Co., Ltd., to continue exploring the development of "The Three-Body Problem." Those currently include an English online original series with Netflix, a live-action film in cooperation with a new creative team headed by director Tian Xiaopeng, and a Chinese online series with Tencent Video.

Besides these projects, "The Three-Body Problem" is also being developed into various art and entertainment forms from stage dramas, radio shows, video games, and exhibitions to an animated adaptation project by the Chinese online video streaming platform Bilibili.

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