Are you trying to tell me I’ve been living a lie? 
Imagine me scratching my head for a bit on the following sentence before giving up and going to Jisho. 
これだけ美しければ、商売女なら下手に触ればいくら取られるかわかったものではなかったからだ。
DeepL and Google translate thinks it is a business woman (when using the whole sentence).
What’s the book out of curiosity? 
Also, that’s a very roundabout way of saying “this business woman is good enough to make business with more than once”.
狼と香辛料
The Book Club is scheduled to start it on Aug 27, but I was already reading it so I’ll just be following along on the thread.
Although it’s been kinda slow. I only really get maybe a half an hour before bed to read a few pages so they might go past whatever part I’m on at the time. 
Haha, that’s an interesting turn of phrase. 
相槌 (あいづち) ー refers to the interjections one uses to indicate that they are paying attention.
なるほど 
I think the mental image involved is two hammers taking turns to hit something. (Think about pounding rice cakes.) I’m not sure that’s the origin, but I mean 槌 is the kanji for ‘(wooden) hammer’.
催眠術 (さいみんじゅつ) meaning hypnosis. I already knew all the kanji from WK and the meaning was apparent from context but I had never actually seen the word before.
Ha, I was reading a book the other week where this came up several times, and as you say the meaning is clear enough in context, but I think I confused it with 睡眠 somehow because I was mis-reading it as すいみんじゅつ…
The origin might help remember the Kanji form.
In short, two horns of a cow (牛), but with a swirl (渦＋虫＝蝸) on the back.
Yeah, I did consider putting in that even Jisho lists the origin as two blacksmiths hammering in turn but ended up leaving it out! I also realized later that I’ve actually heard the word before, just hadn’t seen it in writing until now, so it’s cemented better this time. 
お茶を濁す (おちゃをにごす) ー giving an evasive answer, speaking vaguely, or otherwise making up some kind of story to get out of an uncomfortable situation. Instead of muddying the water, I guess you muddy tea in Japanese.
Is this the new HxH? 牛x蛙
Or is it one of those ships people talk about?
The reason would be because that’s the sound they make. 
Hollywood has taught us that all frogs go “ribbit”, but in actual fact, there’s only one species of frog in the entire world which makes that sound: the one that lives in the waterways around Hollywood. Lazy foley editors just using the sound they recorded in their back garden to mean “frog”, regardless of where in the world the film is set.
I know you’re just joking, but if anyone was curious, the × means that the kanji that follows is not in the jouyou set.
Cow x Frog?!?
I have been in the JoJo fandom long enough to realize that someone may take this cursed idea and run with it
Sorry to burst your bubble, but a good portion of my life, I’ve lived by swamps and therefore have heard quite a few frogs over the years. ウシガエル are supposed to be American bullfrogs but they sound quite different in the last place I lived. There they made more of a whomp whomp kind of sound, but if I go to the pond by me here in Japan, they make this mooo sound. Some at a different pond make a rather cute peep/chirp sound. I like taking photos of them, so I might be able to upload a live photo to youtube after work. Although there’s probably some for the same frogs already up?
… And thus you know each frog makes the sound that it makes. Not clear what bubble is being burst here.
Going out on a limb here, but if they live in Japan rather than America, and they go moo rather than whomp whomp, perhaps they’re not American bullfrogs?