Note that this is incorrect. This is a common misconception about POSIX/UNIX. Not every process exits with an exit code; that's right, a process can exit without an integer exit code! A process exits with either a) an exit code, _OR_ b) the signal which terminated the program (as a separate status in the underlying struct, rather than as an exit code).

Many shells–including bash–provide an abstraction that translates process exits caused by signals into 128+signo, but this is only to fake an exit code for processes as seen when executed within the shell; this is a nonstandard and shell-specific abstraction.

Look at the man page for waitpid() for details. There are macros to test for the difference between an exit status with a code vs. an exit due to a signal; eg. WIFEXITED() and WIFSIGNALED(). WEXITSTATUS() will return the exit status... if one exists because WIFEXITED() tests truthful. Hint: if you're used to seeing your shell report 128+signo, that's because your particular shell happens to check waitpid() for WIFSIGNALED() and sets $? to 128+signo for you… as an abstracted convenience.

tldr; An exit code, vs. an exit caused by a signal, are mutually exclusive statuses. Processes terminated directly by a signal do not have an integer exit code; your shell may provide a fabricated exit code to make things appear simpler, but that is shell-specific and NOT a standard convention provided by POSIX or UNIX.