Yes, I know that, but if you had not already saved your game after that conversation, you could have quit without saving. When you had gone back into the game, Chow would have pinged you again ... because he was the "moving ping of the day". You could ignore this ping and he would still move. You could also just talk to him when he pinged that second time and maybe that time he would have agreed to move instead of saying he would stay.
Of course, if you had already saved, it was then too late. Just good information to have if someone you want out does this again in the future.