diff --git a/httpout/__init__.py b/httpout/__init__.py
index 031f050..46cdc72 100644
--- a/httpout/__init__.py
+++ b/httpout/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2024 nggit
 
-__version__ = '0.0.68'
+__version__ = '0.0.69'
 __all__ = ('HTTPOut',)
 
 from .httpout import HTTPOut  # noqa: E402
diff --git a/httpout/utils/modules.pyx b/httpout/utils/modules.pyx
index 2a6a57f..ebd1ea4 100644
--- a/httpout/utils/modules.pyx
+++ b/httpout/utils/modules.pyx
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ def exec_module(module, code=None, size_t max_size=8 * 1048576):
 
         fclose(fp)
 
-        code = compile(data.decode('utf-8'), '<string>', 'exec')
+        code = compile(data, '<string>', 'exec')
         exec(code, module.__dict__)
 
         return code
diff --git a/tests/test_http.py b/tests/test_http.py
index 88dffbd..d5b5188 100644
--- a/tests/test_http.py
+++ b/tests/test_http.py
@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@ def test_imports(self):
                                    version='1.1')
 
         self.assertEqual(
-            header[:header.find(b'\r\n')], b'HTTP/1.1 201 Created'
+            header[:header.find(b'\r\n')],
+            b'HTTP/1.1 201 Created'
         )
         self.assertTrue(b'\r\nFoo: baz' in header)
         self.assertTrue(b'\r\nSet-Cookie: foo=bar; ' in header)
@@ -193,7 +194,8 @@ def test_badrequest(self):
         )
 
         self.assertEqual(
-            header[:header.find(b'\r\n')], b'HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request'
+            header[:header.find(b'\r\n')],
+            b'HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request'
         )
 
     def test_private_file(self):
@@ -268,9 +270,10 @@ def test_sec_unsafe_chars_nul(self):
                                    version='1.1')
 
         # NUL is already handled by upstream
-        # currently the response is empty
-        self.assertEqual(header, b'')
-        self.assertEqual(body, b'')
+        self.assertEqual(
+            header[:header.find(b'\r\n')],
+            b'HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request'
+        )
 
     def test_disallowed_ext(self):
         header, body = getcontents(host=HTTP_HOST,