He was also said to have lived with three cousins without any disputes between them about property and was friendly with Jiang Rong (江融) and Wei Yuanzhong, both of whom later became important officials as well.
Zhu submitted a petition suggesting that the Zhangs were sufficient for her and that she curb in the recruitment—pointing out that such officials as Hou Xiang (侯祥) were flaunting their appearances to try to become imperial attendants and that such actions were causing damage to her reputation.
[1][2][3] In 703, Zhu was promoted to be Zhengjian Daifu (正諫大夫), a senior consultant at the examination bureau of government (鸞臺, Luantai).
Late that year, when Wu Zetian was concerned about a rebellion by the Lao tribal chief Ouyang Qian (歐陽倩) at Shi'an (始安, in modern Guilin, Guangxi), Zhu recommended Pei Huaigu (裴懷古) to deal with the situation.
Wu Zetian agreed and made him the deputy minister of public works (冬官侍郎, Dongguan Shilang) and let him be in charge of editing imperial histories.
Around this time, Zhu was sent to Zheng Prefecture (鄭州, roughly modern Zhengzhou, Henan) to serve as prefect, and soon retired completely.
In 706, after Emperor Zhongzong's son-in-law Wang Tongjiao (王同皎) was executed on accusation that he had planned to kill Wu Sansi, who was by then a trusted advisor of Emperor Zhongzong's, and depose Emperor Zhongzong's powerful wife Empress Wei, who was having an affair of Wu Sansi, the imperial censor Ran Zuyong (冉祖雍), who had long been resentful of Zhu Jingze, falsely accused Zhu of being part of Wang's plot and had him exiled to serve as the prefect of Lu Prefecture (廬州, roughly modern Hefei, Anhui).