Another day, another round of speculation about Angelababy and Huang Xiaoming’s marriage being in shambles. And it’s all ‘cos of a tiny reflection in a photo (although that won’t be the first time that has caused trouble for someone).

Recently, Angelababy’s close friend posted a picture of the two of them chilling on a yacht out at sea. Instead of seeing it as a simple holiday snapshot and leaving it as that, scarily eagle-eyed netizens pointed out that the boat’s rear-view mirror shows the reflection of a young man.

Cue the gossip mill about Angelababy's love life spinning into overdrive.

Internet sleuths soon determined that the man in the reflection was 22-year-old Chinese pop idol Cai Xukun, who had also shared a photo of himself on what was said to be the same yacht, in the same outfit.

Angelababy, 32, and Xukun are both regular cast members on Chinese variety show Keep Running (aka China’s version of Running Man), so it’s not that surprising that they would hang out together.

However, rumour-mongers decided to spread word that the two of them were dating, and that Angelababy had deliberately brought her friend with her on the supposed ‘love boat’ to throw people off the scent.

Before long, the topic of this “married woman and her little fresh meat lover going out to sea” began spreading like wildfire on Weibo.

The scandal got so intense that another Keep Running star, Hongkong pop idol and NCT/WayV/SuperM member Lucas Wong, stepped up to subtly contribute to damage control.

Posting a video of himself wakeboarding, he wrote, “Baby jie brought us out to play”, strongly hinting that it was just one big platonic group outing among friends and colleagues.

To further drive the point home and clear up the speculations, Xukun commented on Lucas’ post with a photo of the two of them with Chinese singer Winwin, who is also a member of NCT and WayV.

In addition, a source revealed that the Keep Running cast and crew were in Sanya from May 28 to May 30, and that they had a day off on May 29, which is when Angelababy invited a few of the others to join her on that yacht trip. So nope, there wasn’t any romantic getaway for her and Xukun.

A more serious response came from Angelababy’s publicity team, who issued a statement saying that her work studio has already sent a lawyer’s letter to the person who started the rumour on Douban. Keyboard warriors seriously never learn their lesson, do they?

Even Angelababy’s poor friend, who posted the photo that kicked off this whole saga, felt compelled to take down the pic and implore the public to stop spreading rumours. She also declared that in order to protect Angelababy, she will refrain from sharing anymore updates about her outings.

Photos: Angelababy/Weib0, Cai Xukun/Weibo, Lucas/Weibo, 柚子娱乐/Weibo, 熊趣娱乐/Weibo, 国服第一刘能/Weibo