Chapter 21 Crab Shell Yellow

The next morning, Qin Huai originally planned to sleep an extra hour and go to the shop at 5 a.m. to make buns. However, because he forgot to set his alarm, he was woken up right at 4 a.m. and had no choice but to start work earlier than planned.

When Qin Huai arrived at the canteen, Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong were already there making meat buns.

Qin Luo was still asleep. Yesterday was the first day of opening, and Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong felt that such an important day required the whole family to prepare early together, so they had woken Qin Luo up. But today was just an ordinary second day. Since Qin Luo was still growing, sleeping a bit more might even help her gain a few centimeters. So she had returned to her happy routine of sleeping until she woke naturally.

Qin Huai glanced at the ingredients Qin Congwen had prepared and found that there was significantly more than yesterday.

It was obvious that Qin Congwen had noticed the strong sales from yesterday—since the buns sold out by noon, he planned to make more.

There were quite a few workers nearby who were willing to eat cheap buns at noon and in the evening to save money. After the buns sold out, some customers even asked why the inexpensive big meat buns were no longer available.

Although buns priced at 1.5 yuan didn’t make much profit, Qin Congwen had spent his life earning hard money from selling breakfast. He never minded small earnings—even a penny or two mattered. Since every bit counts, he preferred to make more if he could sell more.

Good business naturally meant good mood. Qin Congwen was full of energy while making buns in the early morning, even humming a cheerful tune.

While kneading dough, Qin Huai couldn’t help but laugh and said, “Dad, why don’t you just close the breakfast shop at home and rent out the space? You could just stay here and sell buns. The sales here aren’t worse than at home.”

“That won’t work,” Qin Congwen replied without hesitation. “Luo Luo’s school registration is still in our hometown. She’ll start high school in September, so your mom and I have to go back. Otherwise, if we leave it to your aunt, she’ll just have too much fun and go wild.”

“Yeah,” Zhao Rong added with worry, “Luo Luo is only slightly better at English. Her Chinese, math, physics, chemistry, and biology aren’t good at all. Her middle school exam results haven’t come out yet. Even if they do, we don’t know if she can get into a city high school. I heard that if the score gap is large, the school selection fee is quite expensive. The two high schools in our county are getting worse each year.”

Speaking of Qin Luo’s education, Zhao Rong had endless concerns. “I don’t know if she can keep up in high school. There are five subjects to make up for, and with seven days a week, I don’t even know if she can manage.”

If she had to make up five subjects a week… Qin Huai could only silently light a candle in advance for Qin Luo’s miserable high school life.

After kneading the dough, Qin Huai divided the fresh shrimp that Qin Congwen had peeled into two portions.

Noticing this, Qin Congwen asked, “Huaihuai, did I prepare too much shrimp? I’ll peel less tomorrow.”

“No,” Qin Huai shook his head and pointed to the smaller portion. “This part is for making crab shell yellow.”

Crab Shell Yellow is a famous Shanghai-style snack.

It gets its name because it is a round, yellow baked pastry that resembles a crab shell in shape. There’s a poem praising it: “Before seeing the pastry shop, one already smells the fragrance; upon entering the mouth, crisp layers fall like flakes.” This shows how crispy it is. It comes in both sweet and savory varieties.

Qin Huai could make the sweet version using white sugar mixed with lard, and the savory version with diced pork. However, he didn’t know how to make the fresh shrimp filling that Ou Yang wanted.

Qin Luo didn’t like shrimp, so the Qin family usually didn’t make shrimp-filled wontons either.

In the earliest method, crab shell yellow was made by sticking raw dough onto the inner wall of a stove and baking it. Modern methods are much simpler—just use an oven. It’s efficient and suitable for batch production, making things much easier with modern technology.

Qin Huai had heard from Qin Luo that Ou Yang had been craving crab shell yellow for some time, and since he had specifically requested shrimp filling yesterday, Qin Huai felt it was time to fulfill his “adopted son’s” wish.

After all, when Qin Huai first came to inherit the inheritance, Ou Yang had offered him a place to stay at his home. Since Ou Yang had helped him so much, Qin Huai felt he should make the shrimp version even if he had never made it before.

No experience didn’t matter—there were recipes online.

While simmering the filling for the five-ding buns on low heat, Qin Huai looked up a recipe tutorial on his phone.

After reading it, he concluded—it wouldn’t work.

The person teaching how to make crab shell yellow didn’t seem very skilled.

The appearance was nice, brushed with egg yolk and sprinkled with white sesame seeds, making it look top-tier. However, the filling process had clear issues. The shrimp was diced and mixed with pork, along with sesame oil, light soy sauce, pepper, sugar, and even oyster sauce—it felt like every seasoning in the kitchen was thrown in.

For a shrimp-based pastry, the key is the natural freshness of the shrimp. That flavor is subtle. If too much pork is added, it overwhelms the shrimp; too little, and it lacks taste. If you add a full mix of seasonings, the final filling ends up tasting like seasonings rather than shrimp—the shrimp becomes pointless.

Qin Huai shook his head and closed the page, then checked the next one.

That one didn’t seem good either.

Then again, truly excellent secret recipes wouldn’t appear on the internet. Those are proprietary.

Forget it—he’d rely on his instincts.

Qin Huai believed Ou Yang wouldn’t mind.

Besides, his instincts had always been quite good.

He began multitasking—monitoring the bun filling in the pot, managing the dough as it fermented, and preparing the crab shell yellow filling simultaneously.

At 6:07 a.m., the first batch of fresh shrimp crab shell yellow pastries came out of the oven, fragrant and golden.

At almost exactly the same moment, Ou Yang stepped into the shop at 6:08 a.m.—arriving earlier than 100% of employees who get paid on time.

At that hour, even Huang Xi hadn’t arrived yet.

Qin Huai didn’t encourage employees to come early, since there weren’t many customers at that time anyway. With only two or three early-morning customers, the three of them could easily handle things.

Rent near Yunzhong Residential Area was expensive, so the shop staff generally lived far away. Early shifts already required waking up early. Qin Huai understood the hardship of not being able to sleep in, so he didn’t insist on strict punctuality.

“Crab shell yellow!” Ou Yang immediately spotted the golden pastries.

A full tray of neatly arranged crab shell yellows was highly eye-catching, especially since they had just come out of the oven. Freshly baked pastries were famously aromatic—anyone who had visited a pastry shop would know.

Ou Yang inhaled deeply in delight.

“So fragrant! So worth it waking up early! Qin Huai, I can eat ten of these!”

Qin Huai didn’t believe a word of it. In the steamer nearby, the five-ding buns and three-ding buns would be ready in two or three minutes anyway.

“Try two first?” Qin Huai suggested.

Ou Yang nodded enthusiastically.

Qin Huai placed two pieces on a small plate and instructed Ou Yang to go find the signboard in the storage room to hang it at the window. He also reminded him that these were freshly baked and extremely hot—hotter than buns—so unless one had Qin Luo’s tolerance, they shouldn’t bite into them immediately.

After fetching the signboard and returning, Ou Yang washed his hands and came back to eat.

He cautiously picked one up, but squeezed a bit too hard—the crispy layers immediately flaked off.

He took a bite.

Crispy, fragrant, salty, and fresh.

The pastry flakes and sesame seeds stuck to the corners of his mouth and fell onto the table, even getting onto his clothes. The salty richness of pork and the flavor of shrimp were both very distinct. After one bite, Ou Yang felt that the shrimp must be especially good.

It really tasted like shrimp!

He had eaten many shrimp-filled pastries before, including wontons with whole shrimp inside, but those often didn’t have a noticeable shrimp flavor.

But this crab shell yellow did.

And it was wonderfully crispy and fragrant.

Without hesitation, Ou Yang took a second bite and finished the remaining pastry in one go. Then he grabbed another one, opened his mouth wide, and devoured it in the same way.

One bite each—satisfying!

This time, he could really eat ten!

Chewing happily, Ou Yang couldn’t help but sigh inwardly at how disappointing his parents were.

Why didn’t they happen to travel to Qiu County twenty years ago, pass by an orphanage, and happen to adopt Qin Huai?

If that had happened, Qin Huai would be his younger brother now.

Then he could be enjoying the same delicious pastries Qin Luo had every day!

Ou Yang looked at Qin Huai with eyes full of regret.

Qin Huai: “……”

Why did Ou Yang’s gaze feel so strange?