Function payload_bytes 

pub fn payload_bytes(bytes: &[u8; 2048]) -> Option<(u32, Option<&[u8]>)>

Borrow a validated slot’s committed payload in place: its generation, and the payload bytes when the record is a snapshot rather than a tombstone.

The mount path reads the winning slot through this rather than Stored::decode so the payload is copied exactly once, into whatever the caller is returning, instead of landing first in a MAX_PAYLOAD record on the way there.