No thanks to Chinese actress Zheng Shuang’s surrogacy scandal, netizens are now on a witch hunt for female celebs who they think could have engaged surrogate mothers to have kids.

Among the stars accused of being a potential “criminal” — surrogacy is illegal in China — is actress Kitty Zhang Yuqi, whose twin son and daughter were born in October 2017.

The reason netizens had singled the 33-year-old out? She never posted a photo of herself while she was pregnant. That and how she regained her pre-pregnancy figure really quickly.

Yuqi’s work studio issued a statement on January 22 denouncing the claims and asked netizens to refrain from spreading false rumours about her. However, on January 26, a netizen uploaded what was alleged to be Yuqi’s surrogacy agreement.

In the document, both the names of Yuqi and her ex-husband, businessman Yuan Bayuan, were listed, along with that of the surrogate mother. The alleged surrogate mother, named Amy Tang, asked to be paid US$14,420 (S$19,146) to carry the babies to term.

However, some netizens quickly found a flaw in the document. You see, while the name ‘Zhang Yuqi’ was listed, it's actually the actress’ stage name. Her real name is 'Zhang Shuang', which would be the name she uses in a legal documents.

Even though the document had been proven to be fake, netizens still seem convinced that Yuqi had engaged a surrogate mother to have her twins and continued attacking her online… that was until her former manager Yang Tian Zhen posted this photo (see below) to silence all the rumour mongers.

According to Tian Zhen, she was the one who took this photo of the very pregnant Yuqi, lounging on a sofa, in 2017.

So what do netizens have to say now?

Photos: PBE Media