China's poet laureate of corruption.' New York Times. Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu is an unflinching, darkly funny take on love and life in modern China. It's the story of three young men, Chen Zhong, Li Liang and Big Head Wang and their tragi-comic struggles to make their way in Chengdu, China's fifth most populous city. Despite their aspirations in the newly capitalist China, the trio's lives are beset by dead-end jobs, gambling debts, drinking, drugs, and whoring.