Shanghai enclave has taken its usual table.

This early in the year, the seating arrangement is a beautifully choreographed dance of social status. Lan Xichen in the center, of course. On his right is Meng Yao, as his sworn brother; on his left is Wen Qing, because if Lan Xichen dies an untimely death she's going to be in charge, as the only other person in Shanghai enclave who has an iota of common sense. This leaves no spot for Lan Wangji, which is fine because his place in Lan Xichen's life is unquestionable; he sits across and a little to the left, so brave petitioners can sit down right in front of Lan Xichen. 

Wen Ning is next to Wen Qing, of course, with a conspicuous gap next to him in case some of his guards are making a play for enclave membership, or someone else wants to put in their application for guard. Jin Zixun can't be next to Wen Ning if they don't want Wen Qing to feed him to a mal, so it makes sense to concentrate the people Jin Zixun can't be around together; the maintenance kids and trusted allies of Shanghai enclave are on that side. They don't always sit with the Shanghai enclave but this early they need to. It's important that everyone knows that Shanghai's maintenance track kids are not to be fucked with. 

This creates an unfortunate problem, because this early on he doesn't want Jin Zixun next to Wei Wuxian or Jiang Cheng either. He'll test it two weeks in, of course, to see if it explodes the way he expects, but after the death of Song Lan and Nie Huaisang's episode yesterday Shanghai enclave doesn't need to be the subject of any more gossip. So he places Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, and Nie Huaisang on the other side of the allies, and Jin Zixun and Jin Zixuan next to himself and Lan Wangji respectively. Lan Wangji is impossible to insult and Meng Yao is entirely in control of whom he murders.

This arrangement also has two other important advantages. First, the relatively central position of the maintenance track kids conveys that Shanghai enclave considers them members. Second, Jin Zixuan (his brother) (not that he'd ever tell anyone, the son of a whore can't make it salient that an enclaver is his brother) (his brother) is on the other side of the table from Jiang Yanli. Therefore, Jin Zixuan can only send her long lingering glances, and not accidentally mortally insult her with his attempts at flirtation. Therefore, neither Wei Wuxian nor Jiang Cheng will wind up trying to duel him in the middle of the cafeteria.

He leaves a few spots near the allies empty for shyer petitioners and fills in the side near Jin Zixun with the less problematic enclave members. 

The only flaw with this seating chart is that Jin Zixun and Jin Zixuan could, in theory, talk to Lan Xichen's petitioners. Fortunately, Meng Yao is aware of Jin Zixun's passion for Tang romantic poetry, and that Jin Zixuan would listen to this topic avidly in the hopes of unlocking some more effective techniques for Yanli flirtation. All he has to do is keep an ear out and put in a few words whenever Jin Zixun appears about to notice something unrelated to poetry is going on. 

Meng Yao is very proud of this arrangement, and the social dexterity required to get everyone to sit in their assigned places without anyone except Lan Xichen noticing what he was doing.