House of flat-pack hackers

After completing their martial art practice at Master M's secret garden, Sevan and Kash continued their journey to improvement. Like in The Monkey King, it was a Journey to the West. They ran at Sevan's demanding pace from Mile End to the eastern boundaries of Islington. The route followed the canal where the Challenge of Water and Challenge of Thousand Faces awaited them. The martial arts students swerved between thousands of human obstacles put on the path by the God of the Sun who finally decided to shine some sunlight at Regents Canal on a Sunday afternoon. They had to be careful not to fall into the canal water while dodging the passersby. Once sunk, they would be sucked into the Underworld and stay there forever.

Master S welcomed her trainees warmly and offered them a choice of tea or coffee. Kash chose water as she pledged not to accept hot drinks until the training was completed. Before the practice commenced, Sevan and Kash had been tasked to assemble a mook jong, the wing chun wooden dummy. They were given a damask steel blade to pierce through the carton and sellotape, to reach the components of the dummy. They conditioned their thumbs by inserting 56 wooden pegs into 56 holes, then practised twisting wrist movement by screwing 48 screws into wooden planks. Sevan and Kash trained together at the beginning and, as a result, a dining chair appeared. When they split, Sevan crafted one more chair and Kash two, but she was so hasty she screwed one plank upside down and had to redo part of the task. At that time, Sevan put the rest of the wooden elements together. Did he assemble a wooden dummy? No, it was a dining table!

Sevan and Kash were disappointed they had been fooled by the clever master. Their teacher offered them tea cakes, but Sevan and Kash only wanted to train in kung fu. Master S then created another challenge for them: the Tea Challenge. The students had to construct a tea (or coffee) table. Sevan was the first to accept the challenge while Kash was still tightening the loose screws on one of the dining chairs. When she came to help Sevan, he had all his moves figured out. While learning where is the base and where is the top of the table, he discovered the technique of walking on the ceiling. That should help him in the future keeping carpets tidy without taking his shoes off indoors - he still hadn't mastered the way of the five-second laces.

Today Sevan and Kash passed the Trial of Patience and left Master S with six pieces of flat-pack furniture assembled. Tomorrow's students of Master S may break all those chairs and tables into pieces with a single palm strike. In the world of martial arts, everything is possible for those determined enough to keep honing their skill.